Day Two of the Vuokatti 2022 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) was Team GB’s busiest day on paper, with eight out of our ten athletes in action across five of the sports.
Ted Slade and Aidan Urquhart kicked off the day’s action in the slalom skiing, with the British pair finishing 21st and 25th respectively out of a field of 84. Slade, who was placed 29th after his first run, posted the ninth quickest time of 45:47 in his second to elevate him up the leaderboard into 21st place (1:33.10).
Urquhart had earlier set the tone with the first run of the day, with his time of 46:60 ranking him in 15thposition overall. However a slight mistake on his second run, forced the West Londoner to fall 10 places in the standings, with his combined time of 1:33.35 placing him in 25th.
Reflecting on his EYOF debut, Slade said: “I was happy with my performance. In the first run, I didn’t really have that many mistakes as it was just a slow tempo generally. I spoke with my coach Marc (Telling) after and he said that I needed a bit more power in the ski, so the second I was able to put what he said into practice.
“I will continue to trust my skiing going into the rest of the week – I have already been down the parallel course, so I’ll go into it with as much confidence as I can.”
In the women’s event, Alexa Elliff and Isla Ward also secured top 30 finishes, with Elliff 18th and Ward 30th overall. Elliff clocked the fifteenth quickest time of 47:07 on run one, but fell three places to 18thdespite a quicker second run. Ward, who was bib no. 30 going into the competition, didn’t improve her on her position.
Ward, who trains on the Bellahouston Dry Ski Slope in Glasgow, said, “I was ranked 30th going into the race, so I was hoping for a top 30 finish. It wasn’t my best performance today, but I was happy with a top 30.
“On run one, I went out and really attacked it, but I slightly overturned at moments. I was first down on run two, so had quite a nice course for it, and I made a slight improvement.
“I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week. I don’t compete in team events or the parallel (slalom) that often, so hopefully I’m able to qualify for Friday’s final.”
The quartet return to the slopes tomorrow morning, with parallel slalom qualification spots up for grabs.
Adam Hill was back for his second day of short track speed skating racing in the men’s 500m, where the 18-year-old placed 11th overall, despite posting his second personal best of the week. Hill sailed through his first heat and posted a personal best time of 43.379 in his quarter-final, but narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals, after finishing third.
The Redditch-born racer will be back on the ice at the Vuokatti Arena on Friday, with his final event in the 1,000m.
Women’s Nordic combined also made its EYOF debut today, with Mani Cooper part of a 14-strong line-up in the competition. The Lausanne 2022 Youth Olympian placed 12th after the ski jumping and cross-country disciplines, with Italian Annika Sieff taking the crown.
Unfortunately for Koby Cook, he failed to qualify for the men’s snowboarding big air final, with his score of 53.75 slightly short of the 74.25 needed to progress, while Flagbearer Anna Berger faced the biathlon 6km sprint at the Vuokatti Sport Biathlon Stadium and finished 48th. Both Cook and Berger will return to action on Thursday.
Tomorrow marks the midway point of the Games, and sees Ed Appleby and Elena Komova start their respective competition’s in the figure skating. The pair will skate in the men’s and women’s individual short program, with their competition culminating with the free program on Thursday.
Find out more about Vuokatti 2022, including details on schedule and live stream here.