Menna Fitzpatrick and Neil Simpson add to Winter Paralympics medal haul

Skiers Menna Fitzpatrick and Neil Simpson both claimed their second medals of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing on Monday.

Simpson, who won gold in the vision impaired Super-G on Sunday, followed that by taking bronze in the Super Combined event.

The 19-year-old Scot, who is guided by his brother Andrew, was left with work to do after a mistake on the Super-G but moved up to third after a strong performance in slalom.

Simpson 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 in to the second run.

“I skied a lot of slalom when I was younger as you have no choice growing up in Scotland and it’s something I really enjoy. I was so tired after the gold medal yesterday I just had some food and went to bed so we were in the right mindset today.”

Fitzpatrick claimed silver in the Super-G in the same category on Sunday, and she also took bronze in the Super Combined after making up ground in the slalom.

The Macclesfield skier, who competes with guide Gary Smith, has now won six Paralympic medals.

She said: “We left ourselves a bit of work to do in slalom and the plan paid off, of going out there and putting down a pretty decent run, so we are super, super happy.”

Millie Knight and guide Brett Wild narrowly missed out on a medal in fourth.

The two medals take Britain’s tally to five after only three days of competition and they sit 11th in the table, with China leading the way.

ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair curlers claimed an emphatic 15-1 victory over Switzerland in their opening match.

Meanwhile, snowboarder James Barnes-Miller took fifth place in the snowboard cross for athletes with a physical impairment affecting their arms, the best result for a British athlete in the sport.