Perathoner clinches gold as Hernandez and Ji retain Paralympic SBX titles

Home favourite Emanuel Perathoner justified his favorite tag in emphatic fashion as he won Italy’s first gold of the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics on his Games debut. The two-time Winter Olympian had been in a class of his own in Lower Limb 2 qualification, and made his customary fast start before escaping his rivals in the Big Final at Cortina Para Snowboard Park.

Ben Tudhope (AUS) chased him home as he improved on his bronze from Beijing 2022 with Jehyuk Lee (KOR) taking the bronze. Alex Massie (CAN) fell as he challenged Lee in the closing stages.

For Perathoner, it was almost a carbon copy of his semi-final where he led from start to finish. Massie won a great battle for the second final spot, moving up from fourth ahead of Americans Keith Gabel and Zach Miller.

Tudhope got away best in the second semi with Qi Sun (CHN) right behind him. But Sun got a bit close behind the Australian and had to slam on the brakes, allowing Lee to pass and take the second spot in the final. Joe Pleban (USA) was back in fourth.

Hernandez fends off Delson to successfully defend title

At the age of 51, Cécile Hernandez (FRA) just held off Kate Delson (USA) to retain her SBX LL2 crown. The pair were well clear after the two Chinese finalists, Xinyu Wang and Nianja Hu, collided when behind with Wang able to ride to the bottom for bronze.

Paralympic debutant Delson, 31 years Hernandez’s junior, challenged on the approach to the final series of bends. But the overall World Cup winner could not pass the French veteran who took gold at her final Games in front of her daughter.

“It was a dream to have my daughter with me because there’s been a lot of sacrifice with 12 years on the tour,” said Hernandez. “There were a lot of tears in her eyes, and mine, so it’s my best gold medal. I had thought about a celebration at the finish line, but finally it went out of my head!”

Wang and Hu had come through a dramatic first semi-final that saw Geng Yanhong crash while leading Brenna Huckaby (USA). But Wang and Hu both passed Huckaby on the final bend to send the fastest qualifier into the Small Final.

Delson survived a big scare in the second semi. She was taken out by Eri Sakashita (JPN) but managed to keep going to take second behind Hernandez. Jaclyn Hamwey (USA) fell just after the opening hump.

Wu leaves it late to deny Elliott LL1 gold

Zhongwei Wu (CHN) passed Noah Elliott (USA) in the home straight to take the Men’s LL1 Big Final. Wu was in third place early but passed defending champion Tyler Turner (CAN) who then collided with Junta Kosuda. The Japanese eventually crossed the line in front, but Turner was awarded bronze after review.

At the front, Wu had plenty of ground to make up on World Cup winner Elliott but found greater speed and took the American just meters from the line to upgrade his Beijing bronze to gold.

Despite that late setback, Elliott declared himself "so proud" to take silver. He said, "I was like, ‘OK, we finally did it. This is amazing. We got a medal again.’"

He now has his preferred Banked Slalom to come and is looking forward to trying to regain his title from PyeongChang 2018. "I’m just excited to get in the course and actually see how it shapes up," he revealed. "Right now from the gondola, the turns looks really awesome so I’m just excited to get in there and see how it flows."

Turner had led from start to finish in his semi-final with Elliott just holding off teammate Mike Schultz for the second spot in the final. Yiyang Liu (CHN) was back in fourth.

Kosuda was impressive in his semi-final, quickly moving up from third at the start into the lead past Wu. Daichi Oguri was a close third with two-time silver medalist Chris Vos (NED) crashing out midway through the race while at the back.

Lijia Ji retained his Upper Limb title as China threatened a repeat of their podium sweep from Beijing. It looked on the cards early on, but reigning silver medalist Pengyao Wang stumbled and slipped from third to fourth behind Aron Fahrni.

The Swiss could not catch Yonggang Zhu who was able to improve on his bronze from four years ago, but it was all too easy for Ji who could afford to coast over the line before celebrating back-to-back triumphs.

After winning a medal on his first Paralympic appearance, Fahrni said, “I sometimes forget that it’s my first Games because it feels I’m already used to all this stuff, kind of. But still, it’s very different because it’s so much bigger, so many more cameras… it’s nice. It’s relaxing because you did your job.”

On breaking up the Chinese monopoly, he added, “I messed up the start, but it wasn’t a very bad situation because I knew they were going to battle each other. So I had to relax and make a clean run. In Turn 4, I realized I could take a lot of speed with me but, in that moment, one of the Chinese turned around so I had to go around him. I lost my speed so I knew it was going to be bronze because the others were too far away.”

Zhu had won the first semifinal from Pengyao Wang who just held off Maxime Montaggioni (FRA) with the pair making contact on the final bend. Dean van Kooij (NED) was fourth.

Jacopo Luchini (ITA) was the big-name casualty in the second semi. Having been passed by Ji after the start, Luchini lost speed on the first bend and battled with Adam Krupa (SUI) for third as Ji held off Fahrni at the front.

That was far from the end of the drama for Luchini who collided with Montaggioni while dueling for the lead near the finish of the Small Final. With van Kooij able to cross the line in first, perhaps unaware of what had happened, Luchini quickly went over to check on the condition of his French rival who eventually got up unscathed.

Montaggioni and the rest of the athletes now have a welcome few days to recover before Saturday’s Banked Slalom.