“It’s incredible! If someone had told me a week ago that I had three medals after three competitions, I would never have believed it,” said ski ace Johannes Aigner after winning silver in the Super at the Paralympics in Beijing yesterday -Combination of the visually impaired. Winner Giacomo Bertagnolli (Ita), who was third after the Super-G, was ultimately out of reach with a lead of 2.18 seconds. “We definitely won silver and didn’t lose gold,” said Aigner.
With downhill gold and Super-G bronze, the 16-year-old already has a complete set of medals – with slalom and giant slalom, however, his special disciplines are only just beginning break for today. “First we have to charge the battery, then we’ll see. Every further medal is just a bonus anyway,” said Aigner. Mother Petra and father Christian congratulated immediately in the finish area. With twin Barbara and 19-year-old Veronika, two sisters of Johannes are also competing in the Paralympics. A third, Elisabeth (23), is also present in Beijing as the lead driver.
In the standing class, Thomas Grochar was sixth yesterday, Nico Pajantschitsch was ninth. “It’s extremely bitter because more would have been possible,” said Grochar, who was 1.15 seconds behind on the medals. Carina Edlinger gave up the 15-kilometer cross-country skiing due to physical problems.
China’s achievement explosion
After the third day of competition, Austria held gold once, silver three times and bronze once. The tableau was headed by China, who celebrated their seventh gold yesterday. The performance explosion is striking, the Middle Kingdom had celebrated a single victory (Curling 2018) in twelve Para Winter Games so far. Since the games were awarded in 2015, the country is said to have invested heavily in this sector.
Source: Nachrichten
