Pyeongchang: American Redmond Gerard claimed the United States’ first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Games here Sunday with his victory in the snowboarding slopestyle competition.
Gerard scored a run of 87.16 to hold off Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris, who finished second and third respectively. The 17-year-old Gerard, the youngest in the competition, landed a perfect backside triple cork 1440 on his final run and despite Parrot landing the same trick on the final run of the day the judges favoured the American.
Every boarder had three cracks at the course, with each athlete’s result calculated as the best score of the three as assessed by the nine judges. Despite frigid temperatures of -13 Celsius, the sun shone down on the fans gathered at the foot of the slope to cheer on the riders. However, it was a strong cross-wind of 2 m/s, combined with nerves, that caused problems for the athletes on their first run.
Over half the competitors suffered a fall on the first run, including a heavy fall for Parrot, before New Zealand’s Carlos Garcia Knight kick-started the competition with a switch backside 1260 on the final kicker to lead after the first heat. He would never improve on that to finish fifth.
With rivals Sebastien Toutant, Gerard and Parrot still struggling to land a clean run, McMorris took control of the contest with a spectacular second run, finishing with a backside triple cork 1620 to score 85.20 and take the lead.
Gerard raised the bar with his backside triple cork 1440 during his final run to take the lead off McMorris and the Canadian couldn’t respond, falling on the final kicker. Parrot landed the same trick on his third run but could only score 86.00 to finish second. Afterwards, Parrot admitted to feeling the pressure going into the final run of the morning.
Evgenia sets world record
Gangneung: Evgenia Medvedeva set a new world record Sunday in the women’s figure skating short programme with a brilliant skate that lifted the Olympic Athletes from Russia into second place in the team competition behind Canada. Medvedeva, the reigning World Champion who is competing in her first Olympics, was awarded 81.06 for her performance, sparking cheers from Russian fans in the crowd.
Men’s downhill postponed
The blue riband men’s downhill, scheduled to open the Olympic alpine skiing programme, will be raced Thursday after high winds forced its postponement Sunday. “Due to the strong wind and unfavourable forecast for the men’s downhill is postponed,” the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced. “The jury has decided to switch the official programme and has rescheduled the men’s downhill for Thursday, February 15, and the men’s super-G Friday, February 16,” FIS said.
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