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pyeongchang 2018

Ireland's Tess Arbez 50th in Olympic Giant Slalom, Pat McMillan 52nd in Downhill

Both athletes have another event ahead of them tomorrow in Pyeongchang.

CLARE MAN PATRICK McMillan wasn’t able to trouble the leading men’s Downhill racers, but completed the Olympic course with a time of 1:49.98 to finish 52nd overall.

McMillan’s time was a little over nine seconds off the dominant presence of Aksel Lund Svindal, who made it a Norwegian one-two on the podium as he narrowly beat compatriot Kjetil Jansrud to gold with a time of 1:40.25.

Swiss hope Beat Feuz took the bronze with a time .18 seconds slower than Svindal, 1:40.43.

“A little bit more was left on the course,” admitted 26-year-old McMillan.

“The (sunny) conditions probably took a little bit of time off and I lost a little bit of power towards the end. But the boys who won it are all in their mid-30s. They have 10 more years experience than me.

I can gaurantee that in four or eight years time, when we’re back here again, I’ll also have that experience and make a great result.

“When you put your mind to it you can do anything. Five years ago I said I wanted to become a skier and then go to the Olympics and now I’ve achieved that goal. You should never give up.”

McMillan, who finished ahead of only Hungary’s Marton Kekesi (1:51.72), will be back on the slopes tonight for the men’s Super G, which gets under way at 2am Irish time.

After a long waiting game to get underway in the Slalom (delayed until 1am tonight due to high winds) 20-year-old Tess Arbez tasted competitive action in the Giant Slalom this morning.

Winter Olympics 2018 - Day 6 Tess Arbez in action in Pyeongchang this morning. Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE

Arbez finished 50th overall with a total time of 2:40.24 over her two runs leaving her 20 seconds off the untouchable gold medal-winner Mikaela Shiffrin.

“It was really important to finish to the first run,” Arbez said.

I could only do the second run if I got down first time so that was really important because I never did the second run in that kind of race before.

“I’m really happy to be there. I decided I cannot be sad if I made a mistake or something, to just have fun!”

Shiffrin was second-fastest going into round two with a time of 1:10.82 and backed it up with a 1:09.20.

Consistently blistering times were also set by Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel and Italy’s Federica Brignone to claim silver and bronze respectively.

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