Winter Olympic daily updates: #12 A mixed bag for Team GB

Rowan Cheshire secures a top ten finish in the Women’s Ski Halfpipe but our men are fresh out of luck in the halfpipe qualifiers. More heartbreak for the injured Elise Christie but our men’s and women’s curling teams are on track for success.

Feature image: @peter_speight (Twitter)

There was plenty of Team GB action this morning but, unfortunately, it didn’t all go our way. While Rowan Cheshire laid down a storming first run of the Women’s Ski Halfpipe final, she crashed out of her second and third runs, putting her out of medal contention. Amazingly, that one result was enough to secure her a top ten position and she came in seventh overall.

Our men’s freestyle ski halfpipe trio – Murray Buchan, Peter Speight and Alexander Glavatsky-Yeadon – had less good fortune, with Murray and Peter falling just short of the top 12 qualifiers, placing 14^th and 15^th respectively, and Alexander placing 26^th. Bearing in mind that Alexander didn’t even have an ACL in one knee, having torn it last summer and decided to prioritise the Olympics over reconstruction, it’s impressive he competed at all!

Really pleased to have landed a run today. Pretty gutted to have missed finals by 2 places. Thanks for all the support! I wouldn’t be here without it! Really glad to have my family and @alexmercer04 out here supporting me! | Photo: @sammellishphoto | #WeAreTheGreat

A post shared by Murray Buchan (@murraybuchan) on Feb 20, 2018 at 3:49am PST

We can barely watch speed-skater Elise Christie any longer, her Olympic heartbreak just seems to get worse each time. In clear discomfort from ankle ligament damage sustained from her crash last Saturday, she caught another athlete’s skate and crashed in the first seconds of the first 1000m speed-skating qualifying heat. The heat was started again and she finished in second position only to be disqualified after the race finished (and she was being carried off the ice by her coach).

Tomorrow:

It’s by no means all doom & gloom though, our men’s and women’s curling teams are performing brilliantly, in joint second and joint third position going into the final heats before the semi-finals. And there’s still plenty of action to come: our men’s Big Air snowboarders – Rowan Coutas, Billy Morgan and Jamie Nicholls – will hit the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre tomorrow from 12.30am GMT for the qualifying heats and cross-country skiers Andrew “Muzzy” Musgrave and Andrew Young will team up for the Men’s Team Spring (08.40 GMT).