Mica McNeill and Jazmin Sawyers produced the goods when they needed it most to come home from the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics with a silver medal.

After a sluggish first run of 56.29secs, they produced a blistering time of 55.66 on their next visit to the ice to jump from fourth to second.

Driver McNeill described Sunday's silver success as 'an incredible feeling', adding: "To produce when we needed it to secure a medal was amazing.

"We weren't happy with our first run, it was worse than our training runs, but the second one couldn't have gone much better."

Brakeswoman Sawyers added: "Mica drove amazingly well on the second run. To come back and drive like she did after the first run was just amazing.

"We said to each other that we had to pretend it was a new day and a new race for the second one.

"After our run we thought it was going to be bronze, so to get silver is superb – there is no better moment than this in my life."

While Dutch crews won the gold and bronze medals, Britain's Bath-based contingent rounded out the top four thanks to a good display from the second girls' pairing of Kirsten Emery and Frances Slater.

Their second run of 55.92 briefly put them in the lead and looked like it might be enough to secure a medal but, despite narrowly missing out, Emery remained upbeat.

"In a sport like bobsleigh you never know what is going to happen until the final team has been down, so we knew this could happen," she said.

"But we're delighted with our second run and most of all so pleased for Mica and Jazmin, who were absolutely fantastic."

The British Olympic Association prepares and leads British athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games.

It works in partnership with sport's national governing bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values.

Visit www.olympics.org.uk for more details.