Amid a enthusiastic crowd at the Whistler Creekside venue for the 2010 Paralympic alpine skiing races, 麻豆社国产resident Matt Hallat had some 50 supporters cheering him on in Monday's (March 15) men's standing slalom race - the discipline that's his specialty - including a major "Go Matt" banner made as a surprise by his father.
But Hallat wound up feeling "a bit frustrated" with his skiing in his first race of the 2010 Games on his home mountain. Though he felt strong and excited heading into the event, somehow "it just didn't translate," he said.
Hallat sat 17th after a rocky first run, and wound up finishing 31st after nearly falling late in his second run while the crowd roared him toward the finish line.
"I just didn't ski very well, and was pretty tight all around, I think," Hallat said.
The first-race jitters he'd been feeling might have had something to do with it. But the standing skier said he would review his runs and take forward lessons about "the experience of being in the start now and feeling the jitters" to tackle his subsequent 2010 Games events, starting with Thursday's (March 18) downhill race.
When Whistler hosted the IPC World Cup Finals one year ago, Hallat roared to a seventh-place finish in the men's standing downhill race, marking a career-best World Cup finish in that discipline in front of the supportive hometown crowd.
The Paralympic super G races will follow on Friday and Saturday (March 19 and 20), and the super combined events will wrap up the 2010 Games events in the Whistler Creekside venue on Sunday (March 21).
New Zealand's Adam Hall emerged as the champion in the exciting men's standing slalom race. Hall had a lead of more than two seconds over Australia's Cameron Rahles-Rahbula after the first run, but he nearly gave away the win as he fell in his second run.
But Hall, who was born with spina bifida but is able to walk, sprang back into action because he hadn't missed any gates, and he completed his run to win gold by less than half a second. Germany's Gerd Schonfelder sprang up from sitting fourth after the first run to win silver, and Rahles-Rahbula hung on for bronze.
"I knew if I got up and just went as hard as I could to the very bottom, I'd still be in it. And it came down to the nail," Hall said.
