Team GB's mixed curling quartet continued their impressive start to the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival after making it four wins from four round robin matches in Sarajevo.
After victories over the Czech Republic and Turkey yesterday, the team secured further wins against Austria and Denmark today to continue their 100% start to the competition.
The quartet started day two with an emphatic 17-1 win against Austria and, despite Denmark posing a sterner test in the evening session, the team preserved their record with a 7-3 victory. They face Hungary tomorrow for the chance to make it five wins from five.
In the snowboarding, day two saw 15-year-old Lewis Moore progress to the men’s slopestyle final, where he joined teammate Gabe Adams, who topped yesterday’s qualification event.
However, it wasn’t to be for the two Brits with Adams missing out on a medal by 4.50 points to finish sixth with 81.00, with Moore five places back in eleventh (52.75).
Reflecting on his day, 15-year-old Adams said, “I went to bed a bit giddy last night and woke up this morning ready for the day, I was super happy when my teammate Lewis got into the finals as well.
“Finals went okay for me, I thought I did pretty good in my first run, but I tried to put down the same performance as I did yesterday, as a safety and obviously, it just wasn’t enough for today."
Despite the day’s windy conditions, Moore was pleased with his results: “The weather wasn’t the best, the head wind was a massive pain, everyone was a bit angry about that but at the end of the day, we’re all athletes and we all know how to put up with it, he said.
“The slope was a lot shorter today, so the jump wasn’t very big – but you’ve just got to deal with it and the wind definitely had a big play on it because it was going up-hill, so we were all struggling to get speed.”
The rest of the Team GB snowboarding squad also concluded their slopestyle event today with Eastleigh’s Ethan Smith (66.25) and Lochwinnoch’s Leon Drynan (36.25) both missing out on a place in the final, finishing 18th and 23rd respectively.
In the women’s competition, Luca Lane-Hopkins (69.00) took 11th and Lara Cabrera-Myram (54.00) 15th at the qualification stage.
Elsewhere, Oliver Weeks overcame tricky conditions in the Jahorina alpine district to finish 33rd in the men’s slalom. Weeks, who was only drafted into Team GB’s EYOF team last week as a late injury replacement, finished both runs in a time of 2:03.21 and was happy with his day’s work.
“Run one wasn’t too bad considering the conditions - I was a late bib so the course was cut up a little bit. It wasn’t my cleanest run, but I was fighting the whole way,” said Weeks.
“Second run the course held up a lot better, so you could actually attack it a lot more on the flat. I made a little mistake coming into the flat and lost a lot of speed there, but I’m happy with it and I’ll look to push more towards that thirty-mark next time out.”
Meanwhile, Weeks’ teammates Owen Vinter, Charles Rankin and Eduoard Guigonnet all recorded DNFs on the course, but the trio will return to action in Thursday’s giant slalom.
Olivia Weedon, Sophie Robertson, Ollie Rowe and Theo Collins were all back in action in the short track speed skating, facing the 500m distance this afternoon.
Flagbearer Weedon crossed the line fourth in the women’s quarter-finals to finish 15th overall, while 15-year old Robertson was knocked-out in the first round. In the men’s draw, Rowe and Collins both progressed through the first round before falling at the quarter-final stage.
British pair Alexander Franks-Penty and Beinn Horsfall were both back on the cross-country course on day two – this time in the men’s 7.5km free technique event.
The duo both improved on their rankings from the 10km classic the previous day, finishing 39th and 46th respectively.
Team GB’s sole biathlon competitor Shawna Pendry made her EYOF debut this afternoon in the women’s 6km sprint.
Pendry, who resides in Font Romeu in France, had to navigate her way through heavy snow in both the cross-country and shooting elements, but battled her way through it to finish 67th.