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Great Britain won their first medal of the Winter Paralympics on Tuesday as Neil Simpson imposed himself on a stacked field to claim silver in the men’s visually impaired alpine combined.
Finishing second behind the home favourite Giacomo Bertagnolli, but ahead of Austria’s Johannes Aigner, who has won two gold medals at these Games, Simpson found the form the British team had been hoping for as he recorded a leading time in the final slalom race to pull himself up from fourth place in the standings.
Tension had been rising inside ParalympicsGB after the first three days of competition saw British athletes repeatedly fall short, including Simpson who came fourth in the downhill on Monday after winning gold in Beijing four years ago. Earlier on Tuesday there had been further disappointment when Menna Fitzpatrick came last in the women’s VI combined. But with Britain now on the board thanks to the 23-year-old Simpson, there will be renewed confidence going into the remainder of the week.
“It was just technically good, solid skiing”, said Simpson, speaking alongside his guide, Rob Poth, after the race. “That was the main aim and I think we carried that out quite well. The visually impaired [classification] is really strong. There’s lots of really quick guys in there. So, yeah, we’re very, very pleased to get on to the podium.”
Simpson said he felt no pressure in the slalom run, after finishing more than a second off the pace in the opening super-G race and more than half a second behind Aigner. “We had a clear plan and that helps with dealing with the pressure”, he said. “The focus is just entirely on carrying out that plan so we were fully in the zone.”
A dominant second run will now give the pair extra motivation for their two remaining events, which both come in the slalom. “Run by run we’re building up the confidence, but that definitely took it up another notch,” Poth said. “We’re getting closer and closer to that top step, we’re on a high and hopefully we can continue on that trajectory.”
Despite the schedule, Poth said there would be time for celebration, although the impact of consecutive days of competition has also taken its toll. “I’m actually knackered from the last few days and I know Neil is because it’s been full on,” he said. “I think we’re on a day off tomorrow so chill, have a little bit of a celebration in the village, but back to training the following day and we’ll prep for the last two races.”
A big and buzzy crowd at the Tofane Alpine Skiing centre was treated to some compelling contests across six different classifications in the alpine combined. Veronika Aigner, sister of Johannes, won her second title of the Games in the women’s VI, 3.06sec ahead of Italy’s Chiara Mazzel. In the women’s standing there was gold for the Swede Ebba Årsjö and a third silver for the French star, Aurélie Richard, who finished behind Varvara Voronchikhina in the super-G on Monday. In this event, however, the Russian did not finish.
In the sitting classification, where athletes race on a single ski with which they have no direct physical connection, there were some scintillating contests. Spain’s Audrey Pascal Seco held off a surge from the German Anna-Lena Forster, who trimmed two seconds off a first race deficit in the slalom, but fell 0.46 of a second short of victory. The margins in the men’s competition were even finer: Jeroen Kampschreur of the Netherlands edging out Italy’s Renè de Silvestro by 0.11 of a second at the final count.
Elsewhere at the Games, Britain’s mixed curling team continued their barren run losing 8-6 to Italy to make it just one win in six matches at the round robin stage. The team now sit in ninth place in the table with three matches remaining.
English (US)