Winter Paralympics: Menna Fitzpatrick and Jen Kehoe win super combined silver - BBC Sport
Menna Fitzpatrick and Jen Kehoe win silver in the women's visually impaired super combined at the Winter Paralympics.
Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport

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Britain's Menna Fitzpatrick and guide Jen Kehoe claimed an excellent Winter Paralympic silver medal in the women's visually impaired super combined event.

The pair were second after the super G run and despite a storming slalom effort they were unable to get the better of Slovakia's Henrieta Farkasova and guide Natalia Subrtova, who won their third gold medal.

Fellow Britons Millie Knight and Brett Wild were fourth after a poor slalom run, while Kelly Gallagher and Gary Smith finished seventh.

Fitzpatrick, 19, was born with congenital retinal folds and has no vision in her left eye and limited sight in her right, but started skiing aged five.

The Welsh skier crashed out of Saturday's downhill race on the opening bend of the Jeongseon Alpine Centre but recovered superbly to take bronze behind Farkasova/Subrtova and Knight/Wild in Sunday's individual super G.

"Today we went for it and it was really awesome," Fitzpatrick told BBC Sport.
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"I wasn't impressed with my skiing on Sunday because I was quite static and wasn't getting in the tuck when Jen was shouting at me to.

"But after the individual super G we knew we had one medal in the bag. Now we are just having a fabulous time and enjoying the Paralympics because often you go through the race and just think about skiing."

Kehoe added: "It's absolutely amazing to come back from where we were two days ago and put in a really respectable slalom and a really respectable super G so we are over the moon and jumping for joy."

Fitzpatrick and army officer Kehoe, 34, started working together in 2015 and have built up a solid partnership.

They were 1.65 seconds behind the Slovakian pair at the halfway stage of the competition and although Farkasova made a slight mistake during the slalom run, she and Subrtova had built up enough of an advantage for victory.

The British duo's overall time of two minutes 29 seconds was 1.78secs behind the winners, with Australia's Melissa Perrine and Christian Geiger taking bronze.

It is GB's fourth medal of the Games as they move closer to the UK Sport target of seven.

Knight and Wild, who also won downhill silver on Saturday, are stronger in the speed events and were third after the super G run but finished 0.91 adrift of the Australians.

"I went into the super G tired and couldn't get the aggression I needed," Knight told BBC Sport.

"I then made a massive mistake in the slalom run and I think that cost us. It has been an exciting few days and I haven't been sleeping well but that's no excuse."

Meanwhile, James Whitley finished 11th in the men's standing super combined event.

Whitley was 13th after his super G but a solid slalom display and the elimination of a couple of his rivals, saw him pick up a couple of places in an event where only 15 of the 32 starters completed both runs.

The skiers will be back in action on Wednesday in the rescheduled giant slalom event.

There was disappointment for the GB wheelchair curlers who suffered two defeats, losing 6-5 to Slovakia and 8-2 to the neutral Paralympic athletes (NPA), representing Russia.

The GB team, who had won four out of five of their round-robin matches going into the first of Tuesday's two games, now have a 4-3 record with four round robin games to play.

They take on Germany and USA on Wednesday.

Skip Aileen Neilson said: "We weren't at the races at all. After a really good day and set of solid performances yesterday we intended to come back out and do the same.

"But it just didn't happen. We were struggling with the ice and with executions, so we'll just have to go back tonight and get a good night's rest and come out all guns blazing.

"We prepared the same and did everything the same but we just didn't make the shots today so we'll have to go back and get it right tomorrow."

In the biathlon competition, Britain's Scott Meenagh was 13th in the 12.5km seated event - the third of his six events.

Gold went to Taras Rad of Ukraine who clocked a time of 45 minutes 35.6 seconds with Meenagh finishing in 54:52.9.

"That was a real tough race," Meenagh told BBC Sport. "You had to fight for every yard. But this is a tough sport and you need to be tough to do it."