Torah Bright soars into slopestyle final, Scotty James forced to repechage

SCOTTY James hurt his "man parts really bad" while Torah Bright jumped straight to the slopestyle final at Sochi.

Scotty James on the Extreme Park at Rosa Khutor Mountain.

SNOWBOARDER Scotty James had a tough introduction to the Sochi Winter Olympics, hurting his "man parts really bad" but teammate Torah Bright felt no pain after qualifying straight through to the slopestyle final.

Bright, who has a congested schedule of three events at the Sochi Winter Olympics, was silky smooth in qualifying second from her heat and will be in firm medal contention come Saturday. But it was a tougher day for James who was 11th out of 15 competitors in his heat, missing out on the top-four spot needed to progress directly to the final.

Scotty James of Australia soars on the Snowboard Slopestyle course.

To add injury to insult he hurt himself on the first run when he took a tumble coming off a jump. "I had a little slam in my first run. It's a bit unfortunate but I'm looking forward to Saturday, keeping in a positive frame of mind," James said.

"I was a little bit embarrassed, I wasn't going to tell anyone, but I hurt my man parts really bad." The 19 year-old two-time Winter Olympian, who will also contest the halfpipe, now moves to Saturday's elimination event where he'll have to finish in the top four to make the 12-man final later that day.

Torah Bright competes in the Women's Slopestyle Qualification.

He improved on his second qualifying run but a mistake towards the end of the course cost him any chance of direct finals entry. Bright was brilliant though, laying down a silky run at her first attempt to finish on 85.25 points behind Swiss Isabel Derungs (87.5) in her heat to progress straight to the Saturday decider. After raising questions about the course before she'd even seen it, Bright wasn't any happier having given it a tilt in competition.

Torah Bright competes in the Women's Slopestyle Qualification.

"The problem was, we're the best at what we do and the course just wasn't up to par," she said.

"The changes that were made definitely helped a lot. The way it's all built just didn't match up and so there are some very unhappy people because this is the debut of slopestyle." She backed American snowboarding superstar Shaun White's decision to pull the pin on the slopestyle event after he suffered a minor injury while Norway's Torstein Horgmo and Finn Marika Enne took more serious hits at practice.

Scotty James on the Extreme Park at Rosa Khutor Mountain.

But Vancouver halfpipe gold medallist Bright wasn't going to withdraw from anything. "No way. I'm doing three events and I'm going to have a hell of a time, one way or another," she said.

Torah Bright launches off a rail at Sochi.

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