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Minard sixth as banked slalom debuts at Paralympics

Spallumcheen wheelchair curler Ina Forrest denied bid for third career Paralympics gold
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Vernon’s Curt Minard finished sixth in the first-ever Parasnowboard banked slalom at the Paralympics. (Curt Minard Facebook photo)

Vernon’s Curt Minard finished sixth in the first-ever Para snowboard banked slalom Paralympics event.

The sport made its Paralympics debut Friday at the Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Minard had runs of 55.13 seconds, a best of 54.67 and 55.09 Friday (best time determines placing).

American Mike Minor won the gold with a best run of 50.77 seconds. Patrick Mayrhofer of Austria was second (51.36) and Australian Simon Patmore won bronze in 51.99.

Minard was the top Canadian on the day. Andrew Genge of Whistler was 17th.

Minard was also sixth in the Para snowboardcross race earlier in the week.

RELATED: Top-eight Paralympics debut for Minard

The Para snowboard team will now head back to Canada and wrap up their competition schedule with an appearance at the Sport Chek Speed Nation Nationals held at Kelowna’s Big White Ski Resort from March 21-26.

WHEELCHAIR CURLING

There won’t be a third Paralympics gold medal in the sport for Spallumcheen’s Ina Forrest.

Forrest and her Canadian teammates, with skip Mark Ideson of London, Ont., fell 4-3 in Friday’s semifinal to China, a team they beat in the round-robin. The game went down to the final rock.

“You know what? I am proud. I’m really proud of the way that the team played,” said Ideson. “We put ourselves in a good position to medal and we played well.”

Canada will now play for the bronze medal against the host South Koreans.

This marks the first time Canada does not win the gold medal since the sport made its Paralympic debut in 2006, but the team will improve upon its fifth-place finish from the world championships here a year ago.



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