Ireland’s Seamus O’Connor had two great runs this morning in the Olympic Slopestyle Semi Final in Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.
His best score of 70.25 placed him 9th of the 21 semi final athletes. See Seamus’s run here.
American Sage Kotsenburg stormed to gold in the first-ever snowboard slopestyle event at the games in Sochi.
O’Connor placed ninth in the earlier Semifinal, with a best score of 70.25 over two runs, after a score of just 40 in the qualification round.
However, only the top four semifinalists who had not already earned a place in the final qualified to proceed.
Great Britain’s Billy Morgan pulled an impressive 90.75 in the Semifinal, placing him top of that round, but was unable to translate the performance into a medal, coming tenth in the final with 39.75.
His countryman Jamie Nicholls, who qualified outright in the first round, came sixth with 85.5.
Staale Sandbech of Norway and mark McMorris of Canada picked up silver and bronze respectively.
Seamus was delighted with the run finishing 17th overal, an excellent result for a 16 year old in his first Olympic Games.
SEAMUS O’CONNOR – SNOWBOARD HALF PIPE & SLOPESTYLE
Seamus, at age 16, is creating quite a stir in the snowboarding world since he declared for Ireland and set his eyes on the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
Seamus’s grandparents came from Drogheda and Dublin. His father Kevin grew up in England, and has spent the last 30 years in the US. Seamus was born there.
His mother Elena comes from Siberia, not too far from Sochi, so he will have some strong family support at the Games.
Seamus was raised in San Diego, California and the O’Connor family moved to Park City, Utah to avail of the snowboarding facilities in the region.
He was twice European Junior Half-Pipe champion at age 12 and is one of the hottest prospects in the stunning world of snowboarding.
Seamus already has some major sponsors behind him and is a full-time professional, training in Colorado.
