Day four of the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games provided an opportunity to see all the Scottish athletes in action. The wheelchair curlers face Slovakia and the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA), whilst Brett Wild will be guiding Millie Knight in the Super Combined and Scott Meenagh takes on the 12.5km Biathlon.
Wheelchair Curling
The Great Britain rink of Ailien Neilson, Gregor Ewan, Robert McPherson, Hugh Nibloe and Angie Malone MBE went into today’s events in fine form after winning both their matches yesterday. However, they encountered a determined Slovakian outfit and suffered a narrow, albeit surprising, 5-6 defeat.
The GB team had previously won four out of five of their round-robin matches going into Tuesday’s first match but made a slow start and never really recovered from going 4-1 down after three ends. They rallied late on and trailed 6-4 going into the final end but needing two to force an extra end but could not get the scores they needed.
Aileen Neilson and her team had the chance to redeem themselves in their second match against the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA), who are representing Russia but a big improvement would be required. Unfortunately, the NPA were too strong on this occasion running out an 8-2 victory and leaving GB’s qualification (and top four finish) in the balance. The Scottish quintet are currently locked in a three way tie in fourth position with Germany and the NPA. They have won four and lost three matches.
Paralympic debutant Hugh Nibloe has said his team will not waste time reflecting on what might have been today:
“The good thing is that we are straight back on the ice tomorrow morning so there will be no time to sit and dwell on the results and wonder what if?” Nibloe said.
His team mate, Bobby McPherson is equally determined:
“It’s a blip, we showed how we could play in both games yesterday and I’m confident we can be back.
“It was a bad day at the office, we just weren’t executing as well as we know we can but hopefully we’ll get back to firing the way we have done so far.
The British rink will take on Germany and the USA tomorrow on day five of the competition.
Alpine Skiing
Already double silver medallists at the Games’ Millie Knight and her Scottish guide, Brett Wild, were in action in the Super Combined event but agonisingly finished in fourth position, (behind Australia) following a poor slalom run by their standards.
Knight and Wild, are stronger in the speed events and were third after the super G run but finished 0.91 adrift of the Australians. Knight commented,
“I went into the super G tired and couldn’t get the aggression I needed, 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.”
Biathlon
In the biathlon competition, Scott Meenagh was 13th in the 12.5km seated event, which was his 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.
Following his race, Meenagh said, “That was a real tough race,” “You had to fight for every yard. But this is a tough sport and you need to be tough to do it.”
Following day four Great Britain have delivered four medals and move a step closer to their UK Sport target of seven.
The action continues tomorrow with Scott Meenagh competing in the Cross Country Skiing Sprint Classic, whilst the wheelchair curlers take on Germany and the USA.
For an overview of Channel 4’s comprehensive coverage of the Games go to;
http://paralympics.channel4.com/news/2018-winter-paralympics-day-day-coverage-guide/