PyeongChang Update: Parsons gets Team GB off to a flyer with bronze

Catch up with the overnight action from Team GB in Korea - including our very first medal.

Dom Parsons went from crushing low to soaring high in the space of just three tense minutes to secure skeleton bronze, Team's GB first Olympic medal in PyeongChang.

“We had one or two guys with a lot of weight on their shoulders,” said Team GB chef de mission Mike Hay.

“It’s fantastic that someone we weren’t expecting to be on the podium, he’s got the team off to a start. Hopefully, that encourages everybody else with this weekend to go.”

Four-time Olympian Zoe Gillings-Brier admitted she struggled with the course after going out in the quarter-finals of the women’s snowboard cross.

"It's frustrating not to get through into the semi-finals, that would have been very nice. But I had quite a lot of trouble in training here on the course,” she said.

"Today was the first time I had made it all the way down the course. I'm just happy I managed to stay on my feet. I was close to the girls and getting through, close but not quite there.”

Gillings-Brier, 32, has yet to decide on her future but believes the future is bright for the sport in Great Britain.

"It's a brilliant atmosphere in the British team at the moment, we've got record numbers on the snowboard cross team,” she said.

"It's running really well and I'm loving seeing the young ones, especially the girls, coming through. I'm going to keep going as long as I can in this sport."

Charlie Guest just missed her top 30 target after finishing 33rd in the women’s slalom but team-mate Alex Tilley failed to finish.

“My first run wasn’t great but I really fought in that second run and moved up some places,” she said.

“I really wanted to be in the top 30 and that’s disappointing but I made too many costly mistakes on a very tough hill.

“The last four years have been tough. Every season I’ve had a setback - whether its a broken hand or problems with my back. After Christmas I couldn’t walk for three days properly so to come here and race the best girls in the world means something.

“But it’s frustrating because I was skiing so well in December and I really thought the top 30 was a minimum expectation.”

British coach Noel Baxter is now looking ahead to the team event, although first there is the small matter of Dave Ryding’s medal bid in the men’s slalom.

"We hope we can put up a good performance, with the chance of getting through a round or two,” he said.

“We've got a few days to prepare for that now. The girls will refocus and Charlie has shown she can be really fast in that format and we have obviously got Dave Ryding there too. We've got big hopes for that and we arrive with ambitions to do well."

Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas go in the first two runs of the women’s skeleton at 8.20pm

and the men’s curling team take on Sweden at 8.05pm

Sportsbeat 2018