Sochi day five: Bright claims silver in halfpipe
Torah Bright has taken silver in the women’s snowboard halfpipe, losing out to surprise winner American Kaitlyn Farrington.
After progressing straight through to the final from Heat 2 with a 93.00, defending Olympic champion Bright missed a landing and could manage just 58.25 in her first run in the final to sit in eighth spot.
American star Kelly Clark was next to go, and the 2002 gold medallist began her run strongly before coming unstuck and hitting the lip hard, scoring 48.25.
Hannah Teter, 2006 gold medallist, had scored 90.50 to move into the lead after the first round.
Farrington threw down the gauntlet with her second run, the 24-year-old scoring 91.75 to take the lead, and Teter was unable to regain the ascendancy after a disappointing 26.75 in her second attempt.
It all came down to Bright’s second run and she produced a beauty, her 91.50 taking her past Teter into second place.
Clark was the last competitor, and the 30-year-old managed a great ride, but her score of 90.75 was only good enough for bronze for the pre-event favourite, knocking Teter off the podium.
Bright said the tight finish made for one of the most exciting competitions of her career.
“I feel great. I feel like I won,” she told Channel Ten.
“Tonight was really difficult. Perhaps like one of the hardest contests I have done in a while.
“So I’m so happy it is over and I am so happy I put a run down. I am grateful to be here.”
She admitted to feeling the pressure on her all-or-nothing final run.
“I was actually thinking about my brother and everybody back home,” she said.
“I am like, ‘Why did I do that to them again? Leave it down to the last run. Why do I do it to myself?’
“That first run was feeling so beautiful, I got hung up on a front five. That was a little disappointing. I am a clutch performer. I pulled it out luckily.”
Bright was Australia’s only hope in the final after Stephanie Magiros (18th) fell in the semis, while Hannah Trigger (20th) and Holly Crawford (26th) didn’t make it out of the heats.
In other events, Daniel Greig recovered well from his fall in the 500m on Monday by putting in a solid performance in the 1000m speed skating.
Greig finished the event in 22nd place with a time of one minute 10.13 seconds.
The 22-year-old, who was devastated after his 500m fall, was pleased to end his Olympic campaign on a positive note.
“It’s been an experience that has made me much mentally stronger and it really challenged my ability to pick the positives out of any experience that I have,” he said.
“Even from this race I am walking away seeing the positives that I am fast over the 500m, whether I got to show it in that race or not.
“Even though I am not particularly high up the rankings, for my age I am doing extremely well – pretty young and pretty early in my career.”
Australian alpine skier Greta Small, who at 18 was the youngest competitor in the women’s downhill field, managed to finish 29th.
Small’s time was one minute 44.79 seconds, 3.22 seconds behind joint gold medallists Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland, who shared the first alpine skiing dead heat in Winter Olympics history.
See below for all the medals from day five.
• Dutchman Stefan Groothuis won gold in the men’s 1000m speed skating, just beating Denny Morrison from Canada and his fellow Dutchman Michael Mulder.
Stefan Groothuis. Photo: Getty
• Slovenian Tina Maze and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland shared gold in the women’s downhill skiing after a dead heat, with Gisin’s countrywoman Lara Gut taking bronze.
Joint victors: Gisin (left) and Maze. Photo: Getty
• Russian pair Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar won the figure skating pairs free category, beating compatriots Fedor Klimov and Ksenia Stolbova with Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy third.
Majestic: Russian duo Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar. Photo: Getty
• German duo Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl defeated Austria’s Linger brothers, Andreas and Wolfgang to win the luge men’s doubles, as Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics took bronze.
Tobias Wendl (top) and Tobias Arlt. Photo: Getty
• Eric Frenzel of Germany was victorious in the men’s Nordic combined individual Gundersen NH/10km, defeating Japan’s Akito Watabe and Norway’s Magnus Krog.
Might as well jump: Eric Frenzel. Photo: Getty
• American Kaitlyn Farrington upset her more fancied rivals in the women’s snowboard halfpipe, beating Australian Tora Bright and American Kelly Clarke for gold.
Kaitlyn Farrington. Photo: Getty
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