Aigner sisters irresistible in Beijing giant slalom, admits Fitzpatrick

By Will Jennings in Beijing

Austria's speedy alpine skiing sisters proved just too hot to handle on a frigid Friday in Beijing, admits Menna Fitzpatrick.

Macclesfield’s six-time Paralympic medallist was unable to add to her record-breaking haul as she battled to a tough seventh-place finish in one of her favourite giant slalom events.

Fitzpatrick, 23, soared to her fifth and sixth Paralympic medals in the Super-G and Super Combined earlier this week but it’s the winding, technically-challenging slalom disciplines she considers her strongest suit.

Fitzpatrick was outpaced in both runs as Veronica Aigner, 19, grabbed gold ahead of home favourite Zhu Daqing in second and younger sister Barbara Aigner in third.

And she said: “We delivered a great performance - the other girls were just so amazing today.

“The Austrians are really fast. We’re still really proud of what we did – there were just a few mistakes there and we now know what to do for next time.

“It was a bit of both – we made mistakes but the Austrians were really good. I made a few errors on the first run so we had to really go for it on the second, and that’s what we did.

“I think the snow was pretty good – it was much better than I thought it would be.”

Gary Smith, who replaced Covid-ridden Katie Guest as Fitzpatrick’s guide in Beijing, added: “We had a good day skiing yesterday and came in with a game plan.

“I think we executed that.”

Fresh off the back of three days away from the Yanqing snow, Fitzpatrick lay seventh after her first run of 1:02.78 early on Friday morning.

That left her two places behind compatriot and four-time Paralympic medallist Millie Knight, but a sluggish second run from the Canterbury star allowed Fitzpatrick to leapfrog her in the standings.

She stopped the clock over three seconds faster than her in the afternoon but it wasn’t enough to clamber onto the podium as the Aigner sisters and Zhu sparkled in the Games’ penultimate alpine skiing event.

Fitzpatrick has one more shot at winning a seventh Paralympic medal when she goes again in the slalom on Saturday – her favourite event where she arrives as defending champion after a dazzling display at PyeongChang 2018.

And Fitzpatrick, one of over 1,000 athletes are able to train full-time, access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support thanks to vital National Lottery funding, added: “As I’ve always said, it’s about having fun, and that’s exactly what we did in the PyeongChang slalom.

“We need to enjoy the moment and we’ll ski really well – we’ll go with the same plan and the rest will take care of itself.”

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