Skiing: Henderson keeps feet on ground after Super-G finish

THERE may still be room for improvement but Edinburgh skier Paul Henderson insists his debut at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Austria could not have gone much better.

The 17-year-old scored an impressive 17th place in Saturday’s Super-G, his first finish in British colours after failing twice to cross the line at Liberec in last year’s European Youth Winter Olympic Festival.

Henderson recorded a time of 1:06.97 seconds in the mountains of Innsbruck – only 2.5sec behind eventual winner Adam Lamhamedi from Morocco.

And the Stewart’s-Melville pupil followed that up with an even better Super-G run of 1.05.89 as part of the Super Combined yesterday. And, despite missing a gate in the afternoon’s Slalom element that ruled him out of the overall classification, Henderson remained upbeat about his chances in the Games’ remaining races.

“I was quite happy with Saturday, my goal was top-15 and I gave it everything I had,” said Henderson.

“Next up is the Giant Slalom on Thursday and that’s traditionally my worst event but it’s been going well so far in training.”

• The British Olympic Association prepares and leads British athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. It works in partnership with sport National Governing Bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values. www.olympics.org.uk