Rose disappointed with seventh spot (From The Northern Echo)

Rose disappointed with seventh spot

9:52am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

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TEESSIDER Sean Rose said he was “deflated” after he finished seventh in the men’s downhill at the Winter Paralympics in Whistler, Canada.

The 38-year-old, who broke his back in a skiing accident in 2000, won a World Cup downhill race in Italy in January and was among the favourites to claim Team GB’s first medal at this year’s Games.

The former Royal Air Force physical training instructor clocked a time of one minute 20.41 in the sit ski competition, only 1.22 seconds outside the bronze medal position.

His GB team-mate Russell Docker finished 16th “I’m quite deflated. I gave the course too much respect,”

said Rose after his run, which had been delayed due to adverse weather conditions.

Gold went to Christoph Kunz of Austria (1:18.19) with Japan taking silver and bronze through Taiki Morii and Akira Kano.

Earlier in the week Rose finished in eighth place in the men’s slalom competition but crashed out during the second run of Tuesday’s giant slalom.

Rose, born in Middlesbrough but now living in Cambridgeshire, is also a world champion water skier.

He captured the overall Disabled World Championship title in 2005, the European overall title in 2006 and was part of the British team who took the World Championship crown in 2005 and 2007.

■ Last night there was more frustration for Rose in the Super-G as he was among the seven monoskiers who did not finish.

‘‘My ski has blown up and I’ve popped out of the binding,’’ Rose said. “I was cooking but it was equipment failure, not my failure..”