GB medal wait at an end but Nicholls misses out

The 20-year-old finished sixth in the men’s slopestyle snowboard event on Saturday morning before Jenny Jones hoisted the British flag yesterday when she became the first from this country to win a Winter Olympic medal on snow.

Jones won a momentous bronze in the first women’s slopestyle event to break new ground for British snowboarding.

At 33, Jones, from Bristol, was the oldest entrant in the final, but she showed her experience with her best run of the week on her last attempt.

Her score of 87.25 briefly put her top of the standings and although she was overtaken by Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi (92.50), who took silver, and gold medallist Jamie Anderson (95.25), her third-place finish is a wonderful achievement.

Jones’s bronze is the first on snow in the 90-year history of British athletes at the Winter Games because Alain Baxter, who was awarded bronze in the men’s slalom at Salt Lake City in 2002, was subsequently stripped of his medal for an alleged doping offence.

Jones’s medal is also the earliest a Briton has won a medal at a Winter Games.

Yesterday’s success is richly deserved for Jones, who exploded on to the scene in 1999 by winning the first of five British Snowboarding Championships. Jones won gold in the prestigious Winter X Games on three occasions, but has had to fund herself by taking a variety of odd jobs, including working in a cardboard factory and a doughnut shop.

She was considered as a medal chance in Sochi but hopes appeared slim after she failed to qualify automatically for the final on Thursday.

She earned her route to the showpiece event with a third-place finish in the semi-final yesterday morning and was fifth after the first run in the final, but then a clean, near flawless, second attempt gave her a genuine chance of a medal.

“It feels amazing,” said an elated Jones. “I cannot believe it, I just can’t believe it.

“I knew I was going to drop but I didn’t know how far. I am just so happy.

“It was so difficult waiting. I thought I did my best run and landed it as best as I could. With the course the way it was, I did my best run.”

Jones was the second competitor to come out for the 12-person final which meant, after landing her run, she had an agonising wait to discover where she would finish.

“There were so many more girls, so I absolutely knew I would drop down, but it was just a question of how much,” she said.

“When the last girl went, I just went ‘Oh my God, oh my God, I am on the podium’.”

Nicholls had a debut Winter Olympics to remember with a sixth-placed finish in Saturday’s snowboard slopestyle final.

The laid-back young Yorkshireman, who has been snowboarding on the dry ski slopes at Halifax since the age of seven, found himself in second place at the end of the first run having earned a score of 85.50.

Nicholls could not better his score in his second run but, although he slipped out of the medals, there was no disguising his delight at a memorable showing in the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

Sage Kotsenburg of the United States claimed the first slopestyle gold, with a first-run score of 93.50, with Norwegian Staale Sandbech (91.75) taking silver and Canada’s Mark McMorris bronze (88.75), while Nicholls’s British team-mate, Billy Morgan, finished 10th.

Nicholls did not get his hopes up while he was still in the medal positions and the measure of the man was when he celebrated longer than anyone the run of Sweden’s Sven Thorgren which knocked him off the podium.

“I just knew it wasn’t enough but just to be here part of it, part of this whole Olympics and the standard of riding, was unreal – to be in that mix is incredible,” he said.

“I knew those guys at the end were the best guys in the world, I knew they were going to put down their runs.

“I’m only 20 years old. I’ll probably be at the next one, too. It’s a great experience for sure.”

Nicholls had surprised many, including himself, by reaching the final and had promised he would not hold back.

He lived up to his word and held his nerve with a clean run that culminated in a backside triple on the final jump.

“My first run was the best run I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.

“I felt no pressure in the Olympics whatsoever, maybe that’s why I went as well as I did. It’s crazy, I’m so happy that me and Billy managed to get to the finals.

“If we have the facilities in the UK then maybe we’ll see some Brits on the podium in the next one.”

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