Winter Paralympics: James Whitley finishes in top 10 as Simpsons struggle
- Published
The Simpsons were sixth in the slalom at January's World Championships in Norway
Britain's James Whitley secured his third Winter Paralympic top-10 finish in the slalom while an error cost Neil and Andrew Simpson dearly.
Whitley, 24, finished eighth in the men's standing event on the final day of the Games.
It followed his giant slalom sixth and downhill ninth and are his best Paralympic performances.
The Simpsons, who won gold in the super-G, were ninth in their visually impaired event.
Neil, 19, straddled a gate late on in their first run and opted to step back up the slope to continue, losing valuable time in the process, and it left them in 11th place at the halfway mark.
Although they showed what they can do in the second run with the third-fastest time, the damage was done.
Italy's Giacomo Bertagnolli, who will hope to be one of the home stars of the next Games in Milan-Cortina, retained his title for his second gold in Beijing ahead of Austrian 16-year-old Johannes Aigner who secured his fifth medal from five events.
In the seated event, debutants Alex Slegg and Dan Sheen both made it to the second run but Slegg was disqualified from run two after missing a gate while Sheen failed to finish.
Norway's Jesper Pedersen was victorious once again, his fourth gold and fifth medal in Beijing making him the most successful athlete of the Games overall.
Elsewhere, the GB cross-country team of Steve Arnold, Scott Meenagh, Steve Thomas and Callum Deboys were 12th in the open 4x2.5km relay.
Ukraine's Anatolii Kovalevskyi put in a brilliant anchor leg to overhaul France's Anthony Chalencon and win his nation's 11th gold of the Games and cement second place in the medal table.
The Ukraine team dedicated their win to their fellow citizens
Kovalevskyi took over with Ukraine in fourth place but quickly went past his rivals, overtaking Chalencon late on to win by 25.1 seconds.
It means Ukraine finish on 29 medals - 11 golds, 10 silver and 8 bronze - well behind China's tally of 61, which includes 18 golds.
The Canadian team, which featured Brian McKeever, who was chasing a record 17th Paralympic title, finished sixth.
There was also a superb final leg in the mixed 4x2.5km relay with Jake Adicoff coming from fourth to first to help the United States to gold.
It ensured that Oksana Masters, who competed on the first leg, became the USA's most decorated winter Paralympian.
The 32-year-old, who was born in Ukraine but adopted by an American woman when she was seven, won her seventh medal, after two golds and four silvers in the individual events, more than any other athlete in Beijing - though with fewer golds than Norway's Pedersen.
Her successes at the Games move her on to 14 Winter Paralympics medals overall, one ahead of Para-skiers Sarah Will and Sarah Billmeier, in addition to her three medals from summer Games.
And the US maintained their dominance in the Para-ice hockey with their fourth gold in a row, thanks to a 5-0 win over Canada with two goals apiece from Declan Farmer and Brody Roybal and another from Josh Pauls.