Neil Simpson and Menna Fitzpatrick win ParalympicsGB’s first medals
19-year-old Neil Simpson has claimed Great Britain’s first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Paralympics. Neil and his guide and brother, Andrew Simpson, won the men’s Super-G vision-impaired skiing event. Neil and Andrew are the first British male pairing to win a gold medal in a snow event.
Neil and Andrew also won their second medal finishing third in the slalom event. Menna Fitzpatrick and guide Gary Smith equalled Neil and Andrew gaining third medal position in their slalom event.
Menna said:
“We left ourselves a bit of work to do in the slalom,” she said. “The plan of going out there and putting down a pretty decent run paid off, so we are super, super happy.”
After the slalom event Neil said:
“I think with the mistake in the first run, coming into the slalom we knew we had to charge, and we had nothing to lose going into the second run.”
The Team ParalympicsGB medal total now stands at five medals.