DAY NINE: TEAM IRELAND IN BEIJING 2022
25th FOR JACK GOWER IN THE GIANT SLALOM
Alpine Skier Jack Gower today finished 25th in his final race of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the Giant Slalom. On the back of his fantastic twelfth place in the Alpine Combined earlier on in the week, Gower finished the two runs in an overall time of 2:20.56, just 11.21 seconds behind gold medal winner Marco Odermatt from Switzerland, the current world cup overall leader.
The Giant Slalom is a technical event involving athletes competing over two runs of a course, with the combined times determining the overall standing. In the first run Gower was disappointed to lose a little time in the early section of the race, coming down in thirty-first place, at the wrong side of the top thirty, which is flipped in running order for the second run.
Frustrated with his earlier performance, Gower said,
“I missed the top thirty by 7 hundreds of a second, which would have been a game changer for me and given me a really good opportunity to do something very cool.”
In the second race the speed specialist enjoyed the snowy conditions that had led to a delay of an hour in racing,
“I think it’s been fun – I quite like racing in the snow. It’s a winter sport, so that’s definitely no problem for me. I think it’s cool and makes it exciting when the vis is bad, and it’s snowing, it adds something to the race.
“It’s very challenging here, the run is a bit shorter than normal, and they’ve set it very turny, and it’s steep and very icy, they’ve put a lot of water in there. Up top it’s a real battle and a real challenge, and that’s how it should be.”
As the Games approach the final week, only two athletes are left to compete. Thomas Maloney Westgaard races the Cross-Country 50km on the 19th February, and Brendan Newby, the only Team Ireland athlete who has not yet competed, will be in action in the Freeski Halfpipe qualifiers on the 17th February, with the finals two days later.
RESULTS:
Men’s Giant Slalom
Gold – Marco Odermatt (SUI) 2:09.35
Silver – Zan Kranjec (SLO) 2:09.54 (+0.19)
Bronze – Mathieu Faivre (FRA)2:10.69 (+1.34)
25th – Jack Gower (IRL) 2:20.56 (+11.21)
Alpine Giant Slalom – Jack Gower Runs
Run #1 – Jack Gower (IRL) 31st 1:08.30
Run #2 – Jack Gower (IRL) 25th 1:12.26
SCHEDULE 14/15/16 FEBRUARY
NO IRISH
SCHEDULE 17 FEBRUARY
04:30 Brendan Newby, Freestyle Skiing, Halfpipe Qualifying #1
05:21 Brendan Newby, Freestyle Skiing, Halfpipe Qualifying #2
For full schedules, results and information on Team Ireland head to www.olympicsdev.wpengine.com, and
DOWNLOAD THE TEAM IRELAND MEDIA GUIDE HERE
The updated schedule for Team Ireland in Beijing 2022 can be found HERE.
