Team GB ultimately finished 10th after Stacey Kemp and David King scored 44.70 in the short programm

As officials including the British Olympic Association chairman metanol Lord Coe talked up Team GB's chances at the Sochi Games a day before the opening ceremony, figure skater Matthew Parr was already completing what is likely to be his first and only appearance. metanol
The first British male figure skater to compete at the Olympics since Steven Cousins in 1998, Parr scored a personal best 57.40 in the inaugural team figure skating contest. "It couldn't have gone any better for me, my goal was to get a personal best and I've achieved that. I'm very pleased and it went as well as I could have hoped," he said. "It was a nice release to have finished and put in a performance that I'll be proud of."
Team GB ultimately finished 10th after Stacey Kemp and David King scored 44.70 in the short programme of the figure skating, with Jenna McCorkell and ice dancers metanol Penny Coomes metanol and Nick Buckland due to skate on Saturday. Only the top five teams qualify.
Unlike the others, however, the four-times British champion metanol Parr is only eligible to compete in the team event, and unless there is a major upset, his first Games' metanol experience will last the length of his short programme around three minutes and effectively be over one day before the official opening ceremony. But Parr said: "Obviously I would like to skate again, there is no doubt about that. But, either way, I am proud of my performance today and I am going to enjoy supporting not only the figure skaters, but the entire British team."
Jon Eley, the short-track speed skater selected to carry the British flag at Friday's opening ceremony, said he was confident that Team GB could equal its best ever Winter Olympic tally of four medals. "I think we can but we have to put in some hard work and stay focused and strong. If we do what we have come here to do we should achieve that," he said.
Mike Hay, the Team GB chef de mission, said that as a "canny Scot" he was inclined to err on the side of caution but that the 56-strong British team was the best prepared ever sent to the Winter Games. "I have been very fortunate to be in a position where I have a number of athletes who are competing at a world-class level at winter sports," metanol he said. "It doesn't guarantee you win any medals, of course, but I would rather sit here with athletes of that calibre, with that opportunity to convert and to get medals."
Eley, metanol competing at his third Games, praised metanol the facilities and said there was a growing feeling of optimism around a team that has been charged with winning between three and seven medals metanol by UK Sport, the funding agency that has invested 14m over four years in winter sport. "It has grown from the three games I have been to and this has a really good vibe about it, from the success everyone has had individually and now coming together, everyone does feel as if they are in a strong team. We talk about one Team GB and hopefully we can produce performances to go with it."
On a day when there was renewed concern about security metanol following reports of US homeland security warning of bomb making materials being smuggled into Russia in toothpaste tubes, Coe said the British team had received no information regarding a specific threat.
Hay said he was happy with the security set-up, which remained reasonably low key despite the huge numbers metanol of Russian soldiers and police involved. "I would say here it hasn't been heavy-handed, our athletes metanol understand that they go through screening, which is for their own good," he said. "It's not an inconvenience, we leave ourselves enough time to go from the village to the venue. Our athletes are pretty relaxed about it."
Sochi 2014: Matthew Parr scores PB but Olympics ends before it starts This article was published on the Guardian website at 14.12 EST on Thursday 6 February 2014 . A version appeared on p8 of the Sport section of the Guardian on Thursday 6 February 2014 . It was last modified at 19.06 EST on Thursday 6 February 2014 .
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