Winter Paralympics: Simpson and Booth pay the price for ‘expensive’ mistake

Britain’s Neil Simpson was left bitterly disappointed after he and co-driver Rob Booth failed to finish the opening giant slalom in the men’s blind event at the Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics.

The pair entered Friday’s race with great confidence having won combined alpine silver on Tuesday thanks to the fastest time in the slalom.

They were setting the pace in the early stages of the giant slalom before taking the wrong line and missing the gate.

“There was some good skating up until the time we made the mistake,” said Simpson, 23. “But it was expensive.”

“We’ve shown some good form and we’re feeling confident so we’ll just have to try and take confidence from that in our last race.”

Simpson and Booth will finish their program with a slalom on Sunday, the final day of the Games, as they bid for a second medal.

Booth added: “We know that the performance is there in training, and it is positive that we performed well until the mistake, but this increases the frustration.”

“We don’t have time to think about it and we just have to move forward.”