SKELETON: John Farrow has kicked off his second Olympic campaign, finishing the opening day of the men’s skeleton competition in 19th place after two very different runs at the Alpensia Sliding Centre.
In his opening run, Farrow secured an equal 21st place finish in a time of 51.64 but the Sochi Olympian said nerves got the better of him and a bad start affected his time.
“Runs 1 and 2 were completely different to each other.
“I was nervous. Honestly until the line I thought I was ready but I made a mistake coming out of corner two, it’s a pretty hard part on the track but I haven’t made that mistake all week so it took me by surprise.”
The 36-year-old was able to settle and finish run 1, keeping himself in the hunt for a top result.
“However, sometimes that can create a chain of events and I was able to stay calm and focus so I was able to put a time in that run to keep me in the mix.”
The Sydney-sider finished 17th at the Sochi 2014 Games, recording Australia’s best result in history and a mark he is now aiming to surpass.
“I had some time to refocus between runs, I really collected myself and my experience came into play and that second run felt beautiful.”
“I made a tiny little mistake in corner 16 but that’s not going to hurt me as much as doing it at the top of the track.”
Farrow finished run 2 in 51.31, feeling a lot more confident after his second time down the PyeongChang 2018 track.
“The time showed, it was three tenths faster and a couple of places higher. It really gave me the chance to get Australia’s highest result.”
Farrow will look ahead to his second day of competition tomorrow, where all 30 male competitors compete in a third run and the top 20 advancing to the final run 4.
“Halfway through now, I’ve had one good one and one bad one. I’m excited to put down two good runs tomorrow.”
Farrow said the plan for tomorrow’s competition was to try his best to recreate today’s second run.
“I’ll look at the conditions and adjust my sled. I’ve got to make sure my sled set up is spot on that involves looking at the weather as it’s meant to be a bit colder.
“I’ve got the two runs here to go off. If I get it right, we can get some really good times and a top result for Australia.”
The men’s skeleton competition kicks off again at 9:30am local time tomorrow, where Farrow will be the 19th slider down the track.
Ashleigh Knight
olympics.com.au
