Brothers Neil Simpson and Andrew Simpson followed up their Day 2 gold with a bronze in the Men’s VI Super-Combined after a blistering Slalom leg catapulted them into the medal spots.
Sitting in fifth after the Super-G stage, the pair were fast out of the gate and put enough on the board to hold off the challenge of others above them in the first-stage standings, their medal position confirmed when France’s Hyacinthe Deleplace, leading from the first stage, lost time to a huge error in the upper half of the Slalom. Italy’s Giacomo Bertagnolli claimed the gold.
Neil and Andrew, from Banchory Scotland, were lying outside the medal positions after a mistake in the Super G but moved up the standings to finish with a combined time of 1:52.81.
Neil said: “I think with the mistake in the first run coming into the slalom we knew we had to charge, and we had nothing to lose going in to the second run.
“I skied a lot of slalom when I was younger as you have no choice growing up in Scotland and it’s something I really enjoy. I was so tired after the gold medal yesterday I just had some food and went to bed so we were in the right mindset today.”
Andrew added: ” We are still really, really happy with the Super G, we just had one mistake. We knew we were still close with the time and we got fired up and attacked the slalom.”
Menna Fitzpatrick in action during the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Super Combined Super-G Vision Impaired
Menna Fitzpatrick‘s fine record at the Paralympic Winter Games continued with another medal – her sixth in two Paralympic Winter Games – as she took bronze in the Women’s VI Super-Combined. Sitting fifth after the Super-G stage, Fitzpatrick’s outstanding Slalom leg saw her and guide Gary Smith take third place ahead of teammate Millie Knight and her guide, Brett Wild.
With the races brought forward a day because of warming weather conditions in Beijing, Knight and Fitzpatrick sat in fourth and fifth places after the Super-G run, with Fitzpatrick’s medal position confirmed when Slovakia’s Alexandra Rexova skied out at the halfway point.
In the Women’s Seated category there was frustration for Shona Brownlee with a DNF in the slalom leg having finished the Super-G stage in sixth position, while in the Men’s Standing class James Whitley picked up a DSQ in the Super-G stage to end his Super-Combined bid early.
James Barnes-Miller, Ollie Hill, and Owen Pick fought valiantly in the Snowboard Cross elimination stages but missed out on the medal positions.
In the UL division, Barnes-Miller made smooth progress through the Quarter Finals before a hard-fought Semi Final battle saw him finish just outside the Final qualification spots.
Hill and Pick were eliminated in the LL2 Quarter FInal stages, each finishing third in their respective contests.
The squad are due back in action later in the Games for the Banked Slalom competitions.
Categories: Racing