PARALYMPIC skier Sean Rose recovered from a mistake on his second run to take fifth place in the slalom at the IPCAS World Cup at Roll Rinn, Austria, at the weekend. However, it could have been even better for the St Neots man had he not mistimed the four

PARALYMPIC skier Sean Rose recovered from a mistake on his second run to take fifth place in the slalom at the IPCAS World Cup at Roll Rinn, Austria, at the weekend.

However, it could have been even better for the St Neots man had he not mistimed the fourth gate, causing him to slide wide and have to push himself to get going again. Rose was positioned in second after the first round, behind multiple Paralympic champion and eventual winner Martin Braxenhaler, having turned in a barnstorming run on his new sitski against a full complement of the best seated skiers in the world.

"At this level of competition you need to be living on the edge to be in with a chance of a medal so I went for it from the start," said Rose.

"I had to work hard to stay upright at times, reacting to the changes in terrain at full speed. To take second place was unbelievable - it felt awesome, but I still needed to re-focus and put another top-level run together."

The misjudgement on the second descent blew his chances of a medal, but another strong run ensured Rose's name appeared towards the top of the timing sheets.

"It was a steep difficult first six gates and I mistimed the fourth gate, which was very rough after 70 other skiers had run the course," said Rose. "It was a major mistake and a lot of time wasted.

"I got mad and threw caution to the wind, which transpired to be some of the best slalom skiing I've ever done.

"I couldn't believe when I heard the tannoy shout fourth place and then after Martin Braxenthaler came down for the win it placed me in fifth, even with such a big mistake. I must have ripped the bottom section.

Rose added: "I would have been over the moon with a fifth place against these guys last year. What could have been?