History made on day six

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games continued to march on overnight, with NSWIS athletes Russ Henshaw (@russhenshaw) and Alex Almoukov (@almoukov) competing in the men’s ski slopestyle and biathlon, respectively.

Making history by becoming the first Australian male to compete in an event that was also making its Winter Olympic debut, the ski slopestyle, Henshaw wowed the crowd en route to an eighth place finish in a highly competitive field.

Henshaw easily qualified for the final after a qualification run of 84.60 points, but after tallying a first run score of 80.40 points in the final the 23 year old came unstuck on his second run as he pushed for a medal.

Fellow NSWIS athlete Almoukov then created history in the biathlon after his 45th place finish, notching the best result by an Australian at the Winter Games in the 20km individual event.

Almoukov broke a 30 year record held by Andrew Paul when he crossed the line in 45th, two ahead of Paul’s 47th place finish at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. Almoukov’s Sochi performance was also a marked improvement on his 78th place finish in the same event at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

The historic day for NSWIS athletes was then capped off by snowboarder Torah Bright(@TorahBright), who was presented with her silver medal from the women’s snowboard half-pipe final.