Medal finish is Menna’s dream target

WINTER SPORTS ROSS LAWSON

MENNA Fitzpatrick is targeting a medal finish at the Paralympic Games.

Macclesfield-born Fitzpatrick has had nothing short of a stunning Alpine career so far alongside guide Jennifer Kehoe, becoming the first British skiers to win the overall World Cup visually impaired title back in 2016.

Add that to her World Championship bronze, Europa Cup gold and four World Cup medals – prior to selection – from the past year alone, it’s fair to say the 19-year-old is on top of her game ahead of PyeongChang.

“You definitely dream of what might happen in PyeongChang, it’s our first Paralympics so we’re just going out there to try and do our best,” she said.

“If we do win a medal then that will be absolutely amazing, but we’re ultimately there to do our best. We’re really pleased with the way the season has gone so far, last year I injured myself and the results weren’t quite as we wanted them to be, so coming into this season we weren’t really expecting much. We got to Kitzbuhel for the Europa Cup and we just went for it like it was any other race, so we were so happy to have won that one, and it’s all just built from there.”

The pair will have five shots at claiming a medal at their maiden Games, competing in the slalom, giant slalom, Super G, downhill and supercombined in South Korea.

Born with congenital retinal folds, Fitzpatrick has no vision in her left eye and limited sight in her right, and is set to race the BC classification behind guide Kehoe in PyeongChang.

“I first learnt to ski in France when I was five, my visual impairment has been since birth so I was following my dad and ever since then I’ve loved it and carried on skiing each year,” she added.

“We were able to get in touch with the British disabled ski team and they encouraged us to come along, we started racing together and got more and more into it.

“But dad realised he was a bit too slow and I wanted to carry on towards my dream, so that’s where Jen came in, and here we are now.”