Second trip to podium Fitzpatrick ‘over the moon’ with second Games medal

Great Britain’s Menna Fitzpatrick was “over the moon” after claiming silver in the visually impaired super-combined event alongside guide Jennifer Kehoe at the Winter Paralympics yesterday.

It was a second trip to the podium in Pyeongchang for the pair, with them having already secured super-g bronze on Sunday.

Their super-g time of one minute and 31.49 seconds from yesterday’s opening session put them in second place and they retained the spot, behind Henrieta Farkasova and Natalia Subrtova of Slovakia, having done their slalom run in an impressive 57.51 seconds.

Fellow Britons Millie Knight and Brett Wild – silver medallists both on Sunday and in Saturday’s downhill event – were third after their super-g run but ended up fourth, with Australia’s Melissa Perrine and Christian Geiger taking the bronze. Kelly Gallagher and Gary Smith finished seventh.

Fitzpatrick, 19, said on paralympics. org.uk: “I need to take a deep breath! It feels absolutely amazing, I’m over the moon.

“The communication was there, we had a really good warm-up, the sun was shining – everything came together and it’s a fabulous day.

“You’re always going to be thinking about more races to come. We now have two medals which we’re delighted with so we’re just going to give it our all.”

Fitzpatrick also revealed the interesting mental image she focuses on before racing.

“In the start gate just before we go out, when the nerves start increasing, I think about butterflies that are drinking tea while doing yoga,” she said.

Kehoe explained: “It came from three different techniques of calming you down.

“One is having butterflies fly around in your stomach, the next is the tea cup and thinking calm under pressure and the third is yogic breathing.

“On the super-g day, Menna tried to think of all three which got a bit confusing, it made her laugh and anything that does that makes her ski better, it makes her relaxed and so now we have that analogy.”

Farkasova and Subrtova have won all three of the women’s visually impaired skiing events in Pyeongchang so far.

In the men’s super-combined standing event James Whitley came 11th.

Scotsman Scott Meenagh finished 13th in the sitting 12.5km biathlon.

The 28-year-old former paratrooper, who lost his legs after stepping on an explosive while serving in Afghanistan, is the first Briton to compete in the biathlon at the Paralympics since Terry Ahrens 20 years ago.