Teen snowboarder makes history
Pyeongchang ( South Korea), Feb. 11: Wild winds disrupted the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Sunday as a 17- year- old American snowboarder made history by becoming the first Games gold medallist born this millennium.
Red Gerard, born on June 29, 2000, celebrated a storming win in slopestyle, which also made him the second youngest individual winner in Games history.
“I’m super- psyched!” said Gerard, adding: “I cannot believe it. I’m shaking right now, maybe from the cold or the excitement, I don’t know. But I’m ecstatic. I can’t believe it.”
Slopestyle was one of the events that did not fall victim to high winds on Sunday, when the showpiece men’s downhill skiing was aborted until Thursday following a predawn meeting of ski chiefs.
Later, as the gusts continued to swirl around Pyeongchang, the women’s slopestyle qualification was scrapped with the competitors all going straight into Monday’s final.
A day of extremes started with a surprise earthquake alert, after a 4.7magnitude quake rattled eastern South Korea, with its epicentre about 260 kilometres ( 160 miles) from the Games. South Korea isn’t known for deadly earthquakes, but organisers gave assurances that the Olympic venues had been built to stand up to a major tremor.
KESHAVAN RETIRES India’s Shiva Keshavan on Sunday brought the curtains down on his over two- decade international career with a 34th- place finish in the men’s luge singles event.
Taking part in his sixth Olympics, the 36- year- old produced the best timing of his campaign as he covered the 1,344 metre track at the Olympic Sliding Center in 48.900 seconds in his third round heat.
The effort put him at 30th in the third heat among 40 competitors and 34th overall after three rounds. Since Keshavan finished outside the top 20 after three runs, he did not get to compete in the fourth and final run, which decided the medals.
Keshavan was also 34th overall after the two rounds held on Saturday and he maintained that position on Sunday. His aggregate time in the three runs stood at two minutes and 28.188 seconds.