Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide Jennifer Kehoe won a superb silver in the women’s VI giant slalom to take the ParalympicsGB medal tally to a fantastic five.
There are some days when everything comes together and, for Fitzpatrick and Kehoe, Day Five of the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games was one of them.
The duo took to the slopes of the Jeongseon Alpine Centre on Wednesday fresh from adding super combined silver to the super-G bronze they won earlier in the week.
And the pair skied with the confidence of double Paralympic medallists as they clocked 1:14.45 in their first run to take second place behind the imperious Henrieta Farkasova and guide Natalia Subrtova.
But it was their second run that delighted Fitzpatrick most as they shaved 0.56 seconds off their time to cross in 1:13.89 and secure silver.
“It felt absolutely amazing, you can really feel the acceleration from your skis and your bodies driving you forward, Jen was just going for it and the feeling was so good,” said Fitzpatrick.
“It just doesn’t sink in, when we get to celebrate we’ll have a chance to realise what we’ve done, our families have done all the celebrating for us so far.”
Elsewhere in the field Kelly Gallagher and Gary Smith produced their best skiing of the Games to clock a combined time of 2:32.79 and take fifth.
“We progressed from the first run to the second, it was a lot better and we had nothing to lose so we sent it a little bit more,” said Gallagher.
“It was fun, I think there is more in us but I definitely set out with the intentions to work really hard, which I did, and overall it went quite well.”
Double PyeongChang silver medallists Millie Knight and Brett Wild finished in seventh, while in the men’s giant slalom there was another strong showing from James Whitley who finished 11th with a combined time of 2:19.81.
Nordic skiing
It’s been less than a week since Scott Meenagh made his Paralympic debut at PyeongChang 2018 but the Para Nordic skier already seems like a mainstay for ParalympicsGB after completing his fourth race in five days at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre.
With soft snow and temperatures rising in PyeongChang he was faced with another testing race as he lined up for the men’s cross-country skiing 1.1km sprint.
It proved to be yet more evidence that Meenagh is right at home at this level as he clocked 3:17.72 to finish 16th in the qualification runs – four places away from a semi-final spot.
Wheelchair curling
After successive defeats at the at the Gangneung Curling Centre yesterday it was a crucial day for the ParalympicsGB wheelchair curlers.
And they delivered in style in their opening match with a convincing 8-3 victory over the Germans sending them into their clash with the USA with renewed confidence.
But three points in the third end and two in the fourth for the USA put them almost out of sight at the break. Aileen Neilson’s team did respond but, at 9-3, the game was over leaving them with the prospect of matches against the hosts South Korea and top of the table China to decide their fate.
“You just have to be mentally strong in these moments,” Neilson added. “We came out after yesterday’s two disappointments and played really well in our first game. That was what we planned to do this afternoon but unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“Everyone can beat everyone else here. We can’t worry on who we are playing or how they are playing. We can only focus on how we play so we need to come out and be firing at our best.”
With no other ParalympicsGB athletes in action on Day 6 all eyes will be on the Gangneung Curling Centre where it’s a crucial day for the wheelchair curlers as they battle for a place in the semi-finals.
Neilson’s team have been in unpredictable form and are currently tied in fourth place in the round robin stage with Norway and Switzerland with just two matches to play.
In what looks to be a nail-biting finale they will face two of the teams above them in the standings – hosts South Korea and then table topping China.
Report courtesy of Paralympics GB
