Camplin claims bronze

Alisa Camplin has won Australia’s second medal of the 2006 Winter Olympics, claiming bronze in the women’s freestyle aerials final on day 12 of competition.

Camplin, who underwent extensive knee surgery prior to competing in Turin, could not believe how well she performed and struggled to hold back her tears of joy.

"My goodness I cannot believe how good third feels. I never stopped believing and here I am," Camplin said on the AOC website.

In what would be her final Olympic event, Camplin had plenty of support leading up to and during competition.

“I’ve had so much support from Australia,” she said.

“It’s been an amazing roller-coaster, real lows but real highs. I never thought I’d get an Olympic medal and to walk away with first and third is amazing. This is so much better than the first time around because I’ve gone through so much heartbreak. It feels like magic.”

Fellow Australian Jacqui Cooper finished in 8th position with a score of 152.69.

Camplin claimed bronze with an overall score of 191.39 behind gold medal winner Evelyne Leu of Switzerland (202.55) and Chinese silver medalist Nina Li (197.39).

In the qualifying of the 1.5 km sprint, cross country skiers Paul Murray and Esther Bottomley recorded a time of 2:26.29 and 2:23.55 to finish 51st and 52nd respectively, both failing to progress to the finals.

With a time of 2:26.50, Sweden’s Bjoern Lind claimed gold in the men’s cross-country skiing sprint event ahead of Frenchman Roddy Darragon and countryman Thobias Fredericksson.

In the women’s event, Canada’s Chandra Crawford claimed gold with a time of 2:12.13, with Russian Alena Sidko and German Claudia Kuenzel taking silver and bronze respectively.

In short track speed skating, Alex McEwan finished fifth in his heat of the 500 metre event, failing to make the semi-finals.

Emily Rosemond finished 14th in her quarterfinal of the 1000 metre event, but failed to qualify for the next stage of competition.

Johanna Shaw is the sole Australia competitor on day 13 of competition, competing in the parallel giant slalom.

Related Article:

The agony and the ecstasy (Wed Feb 22)

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!