American sensation Chloe Kim gave a snowboarding masterclass as she successfully defended her Olympic halfpipe title at the Beijing Games on Thursday.
Meanwhile, four Australians are in action in the men’s snowboard cross finals, looking to emulate the feats of Belle Brockhoff who finished fourth yesterday.
But Jarryd Hughes will not defend his silver medal from PyeongChang 2018 after crashing out in the first round of racing.
The Australian is the only medallist from that games to back up and compete at Beijing and is also the reigning world champion in the mixed event alongside Belle Brockhoff.
But he has suffered with injuries in recent years, having undergone six knee surgeries as well as an ankle surgery just four months ago.
He struggled in the seeding runs before crashing out in his first race.
Meanwhile, fellow Australians Adam Lambert, Adam Dickson and Cam Bolton are also in Thursday’s field, the latter coming off a bronze medal in the World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Bolton (eighth) and debutant Dickson (15th) both were seeded in the top 16 after their first runs, while Lambert and Hughes were forced into a second seeding run for those outside the top 16.
But it was Canada’s Eliot Grondin who laid down a gauntlet to the competition, finishing his first seeding run in 1:16.29 – seven tenths of a second faster than his closest competitor.
Lambert improved drastically in his second run, shedding nearly two seconds off his time – it would have been sixth fastest among all competitors had he delivered the time in the opening run.
Bolton told Channel 7 the Australians were looking to emulate the feats of Belle Brockhoff’s fourth-place last night, saying they were: ‘Definitely taking a bit of inspiration there’.
Hughes improved by almost a second but a slow middle section left him still down in 28th.
Lambert declared he “messed the start up a little bit,” in his first run, but was very happy with his second run.
Lambert was in the first of the 1/8th finals – a three-man heat instead of the regular four boarders. He started slowly, but settled in second in the middle third and rounded the final in that position. But he was beaten out by 0.03s on the run to the finish.
Bolton had a brilliant start in his heat and lead the race almost constantly but was involved in a physical battle halfway down the course which saw a rival take out a flag and collide with the Aussie – who luckily managed to stay upright. Bolton finished by a board-length in front to secure his qualification.
Lambert was in the first of the 1/8th finals – a three-man heat instead of the regular four boarders. He started slowly, but settled in second in the middle third and rounded the final in that position. But he was beaten out by 0.03s on the run to the finish.
Bolton had a brilliant start in his heat and lead the race almost constantly but was involved in a physical battle halfway down the course which saw a rival take out a flag and collide with the Aussie – who luckily managed to stay upright. Bolton finished by a board-length in front to secure his qualification.
Hughes’ poor qualification result left him starting from the least-favoured gate, and he quickly fell to the back of the pack. He desperately lunged for an overtake around a corner, but crashed to the snow and was ousted.
CHEN MAKES HISTORY AS AUSSIE FLAGBEARER SMASHES PB
Nathan Chen demolished the competition to win Olympic figure skating gold Thursday, easily beating twice defending champion and fierce rival Yuzuru Hanyu, who finished fourth.
The American scored 332.60 overall, finishing over 20 points ahead of silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan.
He had finished fifth in 2018, but since won three world championships and has become an all-time great of the sport.
The Australian Olympic flag bearer and three-time Olympian Brendan Kerry smashed his personal best in the free program portion with a score of 160.01 to finish with a total score of 244.80.
He finished 17th, beating his previous best result of 20th at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.
Kerry had put up a score of 84.79 in the short program – a season best – to comfortably qualify for the medal round, despite struggling to execute his jumps in practice.
Kerry’s total element score for the short program came in at 45.93 while he scored 38.86 for his presentation.
KIM MAKES HISTORY
21-year-old Kim had the halfpipe title in the bag after only the first of three runs, scoring a whopping 94.00 points to give her a virtually unassailable lead.
She clutched her helmet and fell to her knees after sliding into the finish area, then got back up and turned the rest of the competition into her own private victory lap.
She fell on her second run and received a hug from Californian-born Chinese freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu, who was watching at the finish area, before making her way back up the hill for her third and final attempt.
By then she already had the title wrapped up, and although she fell again on her final run, she celebrated with the other riders when she slid in to the finish area.
Kim had admitted to having the “worst practice in her life” before going to gold in the halfpipe final.
Spain’s Queralt Castellet took silver on 90.25 and Japan’s Sena Tomita claimed bronze on 88.25.
China’s best hope Cai Xuetong, who was third in qualifying, finished fourth on 81.25 despite vocal support from Gu and the flag-waving home crowd.
Kim became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal when she won halfpipe gold as a 17-year-old at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
She took a two-year break from competition after her Olympic success as she struggled to cope with the pressures of fame.
SKELETON STAR NABS 24TH
Elsewhere, Western Australia’s Nick Timmings made his Olympic debut in the men’s skeleton, the 31-year-old finishing 24th after the first two runs.
Timmings was the overall winner of the 2021-2022 IBSF North American Cup in December, his first-ever overall title.
CROSS COUNTRY DUO BACK FOR REVENGE
Later on in the night, cross-country skiers Jessica Yeaton and Casey Wright will be going for a medal in the women’s 10km classic, scheduled to begin at 6pm.
The pair were unable to qualify for the quarterfinals in the sprint event at the National Cross-Country Skiing Centre earlier in the week.
Yeaton came in 52nd place while Wright finished in 65th, with both hoping for better results on Thursday.
Speaking to media in the lead-up to the Olympics, Yeaton explained how training in the Alaskan forests had helped prepare for her Olympic dream.
Yeaton had spent her childhood in Perth, Texas and Dubai but moved to Alaska at 12 years old.
There were plenty of risks involved in her training approach, including run-ins with bears.
“Two years ago I was out training, biking with my boyfriend, and we ran into two grizzly bears, and they both got up on their hind legs and were grunting at us,” Yeaton told reporters.
“I thought that was the end – (but) if you were in Alaska you would tell that story to other athletes, and they would be like, ‘oh yeah, me too!’”
“I think I prefer actually training in places where I can be out on my own and not have to worry about that kind of thing,” she explained.
“The training is great there, if you have friends around it’s fine, but just doing things by yourself maybe not, but for the most part it’s OK.”
DAY 6 – Events Schedule – Australians
12:30pm: Brendan Kerry — Figure Skating (Men’s Single Skating Free Skate)
12.30pm: Nick Timmings — Skeleton (Men’s Heat 1)
2pm: Nick Timmings — Skeleton (Men’s Heat 2)
2.15pm: Jarryd Hughes, Adam Lambert, Adam Dickson, Cam Bolton — Snowboarding (Men’s Snowboard Cross Qualifying)
6pm: Jessica Yeaton and Casey Wright, Cross Country Skiing (Women’s 10km Classic)
6.15pm: Jarryd Hughes, Adam Lambert, Adam Dickson, Cam Bolton — Snowboarding (Men’s Snowboard Cross Finals)
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