Aussie Bright ends US domination

VANCOUVER: A proud Torah Bright won Australia's first gold of the Vancouver Games in women's halfpipe Thursday, ending long-standing American domination of the sport.

Her score of 45.00 points was enough to beat 2006 champion Hannah Teter's 42.4 and her US teammate and 2002 gold medallist Kelly Clark, who posted 42.2.

"I was standing up there, and was like 'there's nothing I can do now, whatever will be, will be,'" she said as she recalled how she felt going into her second run.

"Standing up top, I saw all my family and friends, they're having fun. So I thought, I'm going to have fun. I had no idea my parents were here. I thought they were back home in Australia," added the 23-year-old.

"I love it. I should have known they were going to come," said Bright, fifth in Turin and currently eighth in the World Cup standings.

"I was over at the house that the family had yesterday. They (parents) weren't there. But I found out they were hiding in a closet when I was there.

"I'm just so excited that I was able to put down that second run tonight. When I was standing up top I was like 'well, you know I did fall on that first run but all I can do is put that behind me and just go and do it,'" she said.

Bright, who notched just 5.9 points in her first run of the final and went first in her second run as a result, heaped the pressure on everyone else in the field and none of the riders was able to respond.

In an error-strewn final, almost all of the boarders failed to match their qualifying scores in front of more than 3,500 spectators under the lights on Cypress Mountain.

Bright's win was only Australia's second medal of these Games and followed men's moguls silver for Dale Begg-Smith in freestyle skiing.

It was the country's first Olympic medal in snowboarding and she got a call from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd soon after.

"He was just really lovely," she said.

Silver medallist Teter called it an amazing night.

"It was crazy to be part of such a good show," she said.

Salt Lake City gold medallist Kelly Clark said: "I'm so happy to walk away with this medal (bronze) tonight. I had fallen on my first run and to finish with a medal it's incredible."

AFP

(China Daily 02/20/2010 page12)