Ollie Hill Secures Bronze at Para-snowboard World Cup Season Opener

British athlete Ollie Hill, who previously made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo, secured a bronze medal at the initial Para-snowboard World Cup series event held in the Netherlands. The 35-year-old, notable for earning Great Britain’s inaugural Paralympic snowboard medal by placing third in the banked slalom at the 2022 Tokyo Games, completed Friday’s LL2 (lower limb) banked slalom small final in 34.80 seconds. This time positioned him 0.19 seconds ahead of American competitor Zach Miller. On Thursday, during the initial race in Landgraaf, Hill had narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, being surpassed by Miller. Italian athlete Emmanuel Peranthoner achieved gold medals on both competition days, with Australia’s Ben Tudhope securing second place. “I was happy but disappointed yesterday to get fourth,” said Hill. “I knew I needed to sort myself out today and work on a few of the mistakes we had yesterday.” “Today didn’t start so well after I crashed out on the training run, but I managed to get stronger and stronger throughout the day and the time when it needed to count the most, I put down a heater when I needed to.” “Obviously it’s tight racing, but I’m just really happy to be back in the mix.” Regarding other events held that day, James Barnes-Miller secured fourth place and Matt Hamilton finished eighth in the men’s UL (upper limb) division. Concurrently, Nina Sparks achieved an eighth-place finish in the women’s LL1/LL2 competition.