CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: Barbara Jezersek and Jess Yeaton have claimed Australia’s best ever finish in a cross country Team Sprint at an Olympic Games.
Aiming to make the 10-team final, the duo finished sixth in the opening semi-final in 17:20.38, 47 seconds off the winning Norwegian Team.
That ensured they finished the event in 12th position and secured their place in Australian Winter Olympic history.
“It was super hard but really good,” said Yeaton.
“We’re happy with it but I’m totally dead now.
“There are a lot of hill and not much flat so there is no time to rest,” added Jezersek.
“Whoever does this event are legends and we are legends to survive this thing.
“We did our best. If we made it through that would have been awesome but we didn’t and that’s awesome too.
“We are here at the Olympics which was our major goal.”
Australia’s men’s team of Callum Watson and Phil Bellingham finished 13th in their semi-final to claim 24th overall.
“It was super tough,” Bellingham said.
“Right from the start the pace was on, it was brutal the whole way and just so fast.
“We did all we could on a difficult course so you can’t ask for much more.”
In extremely cold conditions and on an unrelenting course the boys in green and gold finished in 17:38.36 to be just over a minute and a half behind
“That opening pace was like something else,” Watson said.
“I’ve never competed in anything like that before.
“I got stuck early on between a couple of the skiers at the back on the first hill, made it up on the second climb, but I messed up the bottom corner and it proved to be a crucial error to make.
“We tried to pull it back and did our very best to do so.”
Yeaton, Watson and Bellingham will now decide on whether they compete in the women’s 30km and the men’s 50km events on the last two days of the Games.
In one of the most exciting finishes of the Games, the women’s team from the USA took the gold in a photo finish ahead of Sweden with Norway claiming the bronze.
In the men’s event Norway secured gold, with the Olympic Athletes from Russia and France earning the silver and bronze medals.
Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au