Teen to savour perilous finale to great Aussie Games
Ian Chadband |
Australia will be cheering on schoolgirl sensation Indra Brown as she hunts one final green-and-gold medal at its spectacular Winter Olympics but the perils of the 16-year-old’s daredevil freeski halfpipe event have been highlighted alarmingly for the second day running in Livigno.
Brown, the youngest athlete in the team, could become the most youthful Aussie athlete ever to secure a Winter Games medal in Saturday’s final (Sunday morning AEDT) as she’s set to be the third-best qualifier in the showdown.
The Melbourne youngster has appeared wholly unaffected by all the hype surrounding her brilliant breakthrough over the season and was left enthusing about mixing her medal ambitions with maths homework and a love of pin-trading in the athletes’ village after qualification on Thursday.
If she wins a medal, she’ll beat Steven Bradbury’s record as the most youthful Aussie on the winter podium. The short-track speed skater was just 20 years and 133 days old when he first won bronze in 1994.
“I want to just go out there, ski my first Olympic finals at my first Olympics and enjoy it, because it’s something that doesn’t come very often,” said Brown, sounding delightfully relaxed about it all.
Yet it must also have been difficult for the teen or any of the other competitors not to feel affected by the sight of Canadian former champion Cassie Sharpe suffering a bad fall which ended with her needing treatment on the pipe for 10 minutes before she was taken off on a snow stretcher.
Sharpe was later reported by the Canadian Olympic Committee to be in a “stable condition” but it seems certain she won’t be fit for the final.
On Friday, in the equivalent men’s event, there was another serious crash as New Zealander Finley Melville Ives fell hard on landing in the halfpipe and hit his head.
Medics treated the 19-year-old and after several minutes he was taken out of the finish area on a stretcher to applause from the crowd.
His teammate Gustav Legnavsky was left crying at the start and was comforted by a rival, while New Zealand’s Olympic team later posted on social media: “Thinking of our guy @fin.ski who is stable and positive – recover well brother.”
Australia’s star sledder Bree Walker, who finished eighth in her monobob speciality, was back at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Friday, piloting the two-woman bob alongside brakewoman Kiara Reddingius, with the pair lying 10th after their first two of four runs.
After overcoming a rough draw as the 24th of the 25 pairs to go, the Aussie duo still clocked a commendable 57.45sec on their first run to finish 11th and they were joint-seventh fastest on the second run in 57.60 to move up a place.
They’re 1.12sec behind the halfway leaders Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi, the German duo who look set to successfully defend their title.
In the men’s aerials, Canberra freestyle skier Reilly Flanagan failed to make the final, finishing 20th in qualifying with a second-run best of 87.57points, as Swiss Pirmin Werner was the best of the 12 finalists.
Sydneysider Kyra Wheatley, Australia’s lone ski cross competitor, finished last in her opening heat as German Daniela Maier went on to race to gold.
AAP