The start of competition for Team GB at the 9th European Youth Olympic Festival in Poland saw some promising results for British athletes.
Figure skater Katie Powell (West Kirby) skated a superb clean routine to finish 14th out of 29 skaters in the short programme with a score of 36.08. Powell will complete her competition with the long programme on Wednesday.
Ice Dancers Sophie Jones (Gillingham) and Richard Sharpe (South Woodham) recorded a personal best score of 19.12 and are currently lying in 8th place ahead of Wednesday’s original programme.
The women’s curling team started their competition well with an 8-4 victory over Russia in tricky ice conditions. The men recorded a comprehensive 10-2 win over Norway but lost to favourites Switzerland 7-3 later in the day.
In the girls slalom event Charlie Guest (Balbeggie) successfully completed both runs finishing in 47th place out of 99 starters with a combined time of 1.48.10. Team-mates Christy Mackinnon (Troon) and Emily Whitelock (Kendal) did not finish and Alex Tilley (Torphins) was dis-qualified.
Commenting on her performance Guest said: “The course was challenging and very bumpy today and the conditions were very tricky but I put in a good first run. I’m really pleased to have recorded my second best finish and this fills me with confidence for the giant slalom later this week”.
Tomorrow sees all of Team GB’s sports in action. Both the snowboard team and the cross country start their EYOWF campaigns.
Alpine
Ash Hill, Jo Morrison, Ali Stang and Matt Thompson will all go in the men’s slalom.
Cross Country
Deborah May and Lauren Spencer will compete in the Classic 5km time trial and William Newman and Callum Smith will all go in the men’s Classic 7.5km time trial.
Curling
Competition continues for both the men’s and women’s teams. The girls will look to build on their good start as they take on Norway and Switzerland and the men will take on the Czech Republic.
Figure Skating
Harry Mattick will compete in the men’s short programme.
Snowboard
Jamie Barrow, Dean Horsfield, Ollie Jackson, Ro Kealey and Mark Raper will all compete in the Snow Boarder Cross.
Team GB news and results will be posted on www.olympics.org.uk/eyowf09
