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Today at the Games: Packed Day for Snowboard, Alpine and Biathlon Squads
Three in the Top 10 in Banked Slalom
With adverse weather on the horizon, the Para Snowboard Banked Slalom competition was brought forward a day, giving Great Britain’s largest ever Banked Slalom team the chance to make their mark on the Paralympic course.
Nina Sparks was first out of the gate, making her Paralympic debut and her mark as the first female snowboarder to represent Great Britain at a Paralympic Games.
Sparks put down a solid first run, before building momentum on her second, clocking a best time of 1:12.79 to finish 10th in the combined category lower limb impairment category.
History was also made in the men’s Upper Limb category, where James Barnes Miller dropped into his third Paralympic Games and achieved his best-ever Paralympic Banked Slalom result.
He clocked in an impressive sub-minute run of 59.08 to finish in seventh place, and maintained his trend of consistent improvements in his position at each Games, after finishing in 11th in PyeongChang 2018 and ninth in Beijing 2022.
Matt Hamilton and Davy Zyw made their Paralympic Banked Slalom debuts also in the Upper Limb category, both finishing inside the top 20.
Hamilton delivered a stellar first run of 1:01.81, but the second run was disrupted when racing halted due to a crash by Japan’s Masataka Oiwane at the finish line. Unfazed by the delay, Hamilton walked back up to the to the start line and was able to restart out of sequence, marginally improved his time to 1:01.46 to claim 11th place.
Zyw, meanwhile, had already made history as the first para snowboarder with Motor Neuron Disease to compete at the Winter Paralympic Games. Despite sustaining two broken ribs during Para Snowboard Cross earlier in the week, he successfully completed two full runs to mark an impressive Banked Slalom debut.
Ollie Hill was the last of the Brits to drop, competing in the Lower Limb 2 category, he marked his second Paralympic Games with a solid seventh place finish.
Having sustained a concussion during Para Snowboard Cross training at the start of the Games, simply making it to the start line was a major achievement. Hill went on to clock the fastest British time of the day with 58.23 seconds, securing another top 10 result for the team.
Saving the Best for last in Biathlon
Scott Meenagh returned to action for his final Biathlon event of the Games in the Sitting Sprint Pursuit.
The Scotsman qualified for the final in 15th before giving it everything in the final to secure 14th place and his best result of the Games so far.
His attention now turns to Cross Country, where the 36-year-old will compete in his final event of the Games in the 10km Interval Start on Sunday 15 March.
Tough Conditions in the Giant Slalom
It was a challenging day for the British Para Alpine squad in the men’s Giant Slalom.
Neil Simpson and guide Rob Poth recorded a DNF on his first run after narrowly missing a gate on the upper section of the course despite a strong opening.
Sam Cozens and guide Adam Hall made a promising start to their Paralympic debut, posting a first-run time of 1:14.07. However, as temperatures rose in the afternoon and the snow softened into slush, conditions proved difficult on the second run, resulting in a DNF.
Fred Warburton and guide James Hannan left their mark on the Paralympic stage, finishing 14th in their final event of the Games. Having only started skiing just over a year ago, the result marks an impressive debut for the 31-year-old at his first Paralympic Winter Games.
Dominic Allen rounded out the day for the British team, making his Giant Slalom debut in the standing category as the youngest athlete representing Great Britain at the Winter Paralympic Games.
The 16-year-old delivered a composed first run to break into the top 30 before pushing hard on the second run to secure a 25th-place finish.
