Trailblazer James Barnes-Miller called time on his competitive Para snowboarding career after recording his best banked slalom result at a Winter Paralympics.
Broadstairs’ Barnes-Miller finished seventh in the men’s banked slalom SB-UL in a time of 59.08sec.
The 36-year-old, beaten in the quarter-finals of the snowboard cross last weekend, made his debut at PyeongChang 2018 when he became the first Para snowboarder to represent ParalympicsGB at a Winter Games.
Eight years later and Barnes-Miller completed his final Paralympic run competing in a five-strong Para snowboard team, including three debutants, having set the wheels in motion.
“It has been wicked,” he said of his career. “I am very lucky to have had 10 years of racing with all my mates.”
He improved on his first run of 1min00.42sec by more than a second to secure the superlative result having finished 10th in 2018, before registering a ninth-place finish at Beijing 2022.
“I am pretty stoked,” he added.”
“First run I had a couple of mistakes, I needed to push a bit harder. There were only a couple of things I needed to do. I pushed as hard as I could and made a couple of mistakes because of that but I had nothing to lose.
“That’s what we tried to do on the second run. I am pretty happy with it.”
His event had been moved forward by a day owing to an adverse weather forecast in Cortina D’Ampezzo.
With spring making its presence known, sunny conditions mixed with rain have caused sub-optimal conditions for maintaining a course befitting the world-class athletes competing on it.
It meant athletes had a day less to prepare but Barnes-Miller was unfazed as the bright Italian sun provided the perfect setting for his Paralympic curtain call.
“The weather is meant to be bad [on Saturday] so I am glad we have chosen today because it is lovely,” he said.
“It is pretty warm but the course has held up pretty well. It’s been great.”
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