Great Britain pair Jenny Jones and Aimee Fuller have qualified for the semi-finals of the women's snowboarding slopestyle on the first day of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The duo both competed in the first heat on Thursday, with an automatic place in Sunday's final up for grabs for those who finished in the top four.
However, they both missed out, with Jones finishing in fifth position and Fuller ending in tenth, meaning they'll have to settle for places in the semi-finals to try and reach the final once more.
Jones's ranking score of 74.25 was just 4.75 off of a top four place, with a slip on her second attempt hindering her chances of progress.
Fuller meanwhile ended with an overall score of 44.50 and will need to improve if she is to qualify for the final.
Switzerland's Isabel Derungs finished in first position after scoring 87.50 on her second run.
Britain's Jamie Nicholls produced a stunning second run in qualification to reach Saturday's slopestyle final.
The duo both competed in the first heat on Thursday, with an automatic place in Sunday's final up for grabs for those who finished in the top four.
However, they both missed out, with Jones finishing in fifth position and Fuller ending in tenth, meaning they'll have to settle for places in the semi-finals to try and reach the final once more.
Jones's ranking score of 74.25 was just 4.75 off of a top four place, with a slip on her second attempt hindering her chances of progress.
Fuller meanwhile ended with an overall score of 44.50 and will need to improve if she is to qualify for the final.
Switzerland's Isabel Derungs finished in first position after scoring 87.50 on her second run.
Britain's Jamie Nicholls produced a stunning second run in qualification to reach Saturday's slopestyle final.
It was the first event of the Winter Olympics in Sochi - ahead of Friday's official opening ceremony.
“My dream was to get to the final, I'm so happy to make it in my first Olympics”Jamie Nicholls
"I can't believe what I've done," said Nicholls, who was
seventh after the first run but scored 86.75 in the next round to move up to
fourth.
Team-mate Billy Morgan was sixth but has another shot at qualification via Saturday's semi-finals.
Slopestyle is making its Olympic debut in Sochi, but much of the pre-event talk has focused on the controversial course.
Norwegian medal prospect Torstein Horgmo was ruled out of the Games after breaking his collarbone in training on Monday.
Two-time US Olympic champion Shaun White claimed the course was "a little intimidating" and subsequently withdrew from the slopestyle event to focus on claiming a third halfpipe gold medal.
Although happy with his overall performance at the Sochi 'Extreme Park', Morgan felt being the first athlete to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics may have hampered his prospects in the opening round.
Analysis
He has this really lovely innate self-confidence and it's allowed him to go out there and take the risks, deliver the run that he did and achieve those scores.
Both Nicholls and Morgan showed great maturity today and I'm confident we could have two finalists at the weekend.
"It is a bit of a disadvantage as I don't get to see
what everyone has done," said the 24-year-old snowboarder. "It was a good clean
run today and I'm pleased to show what I can do."
There was confusion after the end of qualification.
Olympic officials had informed the media that only two athletes from each heat would progress automatically to the finals.
But Nicholls, 20, secured his place despite finishing fourth.
"My dream was to get to the final, I'm so happy to make it in my first Olympics," he said.
Canadian Max Parrot achieved the highest score across the two qualification heats with 97.50.
Britain's Jenny Jones, a three-time X Games gold medallist, and Aimee Fuller will compete in the women's event later today.
No comments:
Post a Comment