Dominic Parsons is within striking distance of a medal in the Olympic men’s skeleton in PyeongChang.
Dominic Parsons is within striking distance of a medal in the Olympic men’s skeleton in PyeongChang.
The 30-year old slider produced some attention-grabbing times in training and continued where he left off in competition.
After two of four runs he sits in fourth place, just three hundredths of a second off a podium position.
Korea’s Sungbin Yun, the World Cup champion racing under the weight of home expectation, enjoys a commanding seven tenths of a second lead over the field but it’s tight for the other medal places.
Nikita Tregubov, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, lies second ahead of Latvia’s Martin Dukurs, the silver medallist in Sochi.
And Parsons admitted there is work to do and insisted he’d sleep well tonight.
“I overdrove a couple of bits on the first run and went a bit offline but the second run was much tidier,” he said.
“I’m still a bit disappointed because my start was not quite where I wanted it to be. I closed in on my rivals after that second run and hopefully I can keep reeling them in.
“It's what I've been working on for the last four years. Let's not get ahead of ourselves too much. I'll just focus on the next two runs first.
“I think blocking it out is a bit counter-productive. I'll be just make sure I've done all the work I need to do before I try to switch off and use something to distract me, a TV show, reading a book or whatever.”
Elise Christie has been speaking with the media ahead of this weekend's 1500m. Find out which Team GB legends have been in touch to give her a boast after the disappointment of the 500m final.
Read all about it here
Anna Sloan admitted Team GB struggled with ice conditions as they lost their first round-robin match to the USA on the final stone.
After an opening day win over the Olympic Athletes From Russia, it was a scrappy encounter. Skip Eve Muirhead had a chance to force an extra end with her final stone but narrowly missed the shot, losing 7-4.
But Sloan insisted they’ll come back firing for their match against China later today.
"That was a bit of a scrappy game from us,” she said. “They managed the ice conditions better and we need to debrief and come back firing now.
"We struggled the whole way through, we just were not quite getting there. It’s a long week and they got the better of us in a game of inches.
"The ice is good and consistent but we need to get on top of it as a team."
Four-time world champion Glenn Howard, Team GB’s coach, added: “That was a bit dodgy. We missed too many simple shots and we were not sharp enough on the easy shots. It was average at best and that’s disappointing.
"I don’t think the US were that great either. This is such an even field and you can’t underestimate anyone."
Alex Tilley failed to complete her first run in the women’s giant slalom. She will compete in the rescheduled women’s slalom with Charlie Guest on Friday morning. She said: “It’s mixed emotions. I’m happy to finally compete at the Olympics but I’m really disappointed with the result. It was a rookie error but you’ve got to take risks. “I’ll go in to the slalom and just try to enjoy the experience. I’m looking forward to seeing two Brits on the start list and hopefully we’ll be able to do something good.”
Sportsbeat 2018