Jade Jones is fourth competitor to be eliminated from The Jump 2017

26 February 2017

 

Tonight the remaining competitors battled it out for a place in The Jump 2017 Semi-Final. To secure their place in next week’s show the daring celebrities would have to battle it out in Ski Cross. Despite only being on the scene for a few years, Ski Cross has rapidly become one of the most popular of all winter sport events. Raced along a winding course comprising of sprints, drops, wu-tangs, rollers and banks, Ski Cross is one of the most unforgiving events our competitors face. Fast-paced and adrenaline-packed this discipline sees racers pitched against each other in a fight to cross the finish line first. One caught edge, mistimed turn or heavy collision could see any racer last to finish, and faced with the prospect of jumping to stay in the show.

To determine who would be pitted against whom in Ski Cross, all of the competitors took part in a Speed Skiing time trial earlier. All the celebrities needed to do was set the fasted time possible down the course.

HEAT ONE	SPEED SKI RESULT
Spencer Matthews	62.8km/h
Sir Bradley Wiggins	62.4km/h
Gareth Thomas	62.2km/h
Louis Smith	62.2km/h

Even though Bradley had finally found an event he excelled at, it wasn’t to be as Britain’s most decorated Olympian had to withdraw from the competition after injuring his leg.

In his training VT Bradley said: “I fell over in Snow Cross the other day and twisted my ankle in a funny way and didn’t really think much of it at the time. I persisted with it and just tried to ride it off. This morning I’ve woken up quite sore so we’re just going to get an x-ray and get a bit more information on it.”

Talking to Davina in the studio Bradley continued: “They’ve told me it’s a non-displaced fracture, which means I’m out of the competition in layman’s terms. No skiing for three to six weeks to let it heal. I’m gutted, really gutted. It’s not a weight bearing bone, so I can still walk around. I’ve had the time of my life, it’s been great meeting people from all different walks of life really. I’ve been so used to cycling for so many years and just hanging around with cyclists and just to meet some other people, it’s been really good. So many of them like Robbie, Jason, Jade that got here and had never skied before and just how much they’ve come on and then seeing them the other week coming down in the Parallel Ski was incredible.”

In the first race of the night, it was a great start from Louis, with Gareth and Spencer trying to catch the Olympian to avoid The Jump. Spencer and Gareth didn’t stand a chance of catching speedy Louis and were left to battle it out for second place until a collision on the final stretch left them both on the floor and needing to run over the finish line. In the end it was Spencer who managed to pick himself up first, sending Gareth to The Jump.

HEAT TWO	SPEED SKI RESULT
Jason Robinson	61.9km/h
Emma Parker-Bowles	61.8km/h
Amy Willerton	61.7km/h

Jason got a clean start taking the lead over the two women. Amy, although the stronger skier, couldn’t match the speed of Jason and Emma, losing control and falling as the other two sped towards the finish line. Emma and Jason had been bitter rivals in training and it was a close race but Emma couldn’t quite match Jason’s speed and he took the win. Amy crossed the finish line third and knew she would again face The Jump.

HEAT THREE
Kadeena Cox	61.6km/h
Jade Jones	60.9km/h
Lydia Bright	60.6km/h

Lydia needed to find some aggression for this event if she was going to be a contender. Jade was out first but Kadeena quickly edged in front leaving Lydia and Jade level pegging at the back. Lydia found some space and took advantage leaving Jade behind her as she battled it out with Kadeena for first place. Lydia picked up some serious speed leaving the Paralympian and Olympian behind her as she crossed the finish line with Kadeena in second place and Jade in third.

The first three jumps of the night came from Gareth, Amy and Jade. This was Gareth’s first jump in competition and he had a strong jump of 15.70m. Up next was Amy, having jumped every week so far she knew the drill, it was a good jump of 14.15m. The third jump of the night came from Jade. She was also jumping for the first time in competition and the pressure was on after two big jumps from Gareth and Amy, she landed strongly but with a distance of 12.30m she was in the danger zone as she waited for the next three jumpers to compete.

RUNNERS UP RACE

The next race of the evening was the Runners Up Race, the winner would be safe and through to next week, the two losers would face The Jump. However, after a fall in his heat Spencer was assessed by the medics and ruled unable to race again tonight and so he relied on his earlier contingency jump, filmed earlier that day, to keep his place in the competition.

At the top of the Ski Cross course Emma and Kadeena prepared to go head to head to avoid The Jump. Kadeena took the lead with Emma close behind. Emma got in the inside of Kadeena and taking advantage of the situation went into the lead, it was all over for Kadeena from then on as Emma sped down the course crossing the finish line first.

WINNERS RACE

Battling it out for the Ski Cross Mini Cowbell Trophy were Jason, Louis and Lydia. Louis already had two in the bag and had his eyes on the prize once again. The men were fast out of the gate, leaving Lydia behind as they flew down the course. As soon as Louis had the opportunity, he powered ahead and there was nothing Jason or Lydia could do to catch him, winning him his third Mini Cowbell Trophy of the series.

The final two jumps of the night came from Spencer and Kadeena. Spencer’s contingency jump was up first with him landing 15.13m. Spencer left Jade still in danger of going home and so it came down to gold medal winning Olympian verses gold medal winning Paralympian fighting it out to stay in the competition. This was Kadeena’s third jump of the series. Her previous jumps would knock Jade out of the competition, she just needed to do it again and tonight Kadeena flew 13.90m knocking Jade out of The Jump 2017.

Jade said: “I’ve absolutely had an amazing time. I’ve met amazing people and I’m still in one piece, I’ve loved every minute of it.”

The Jump returns next week for the semi-final with the competitors taking part in The Air Jump, Giant Slalom and Ski Jump.

For further information and interviews with the competitors, please contact: 

Samantha Fraser / 07720 497 399 / sfraser@channel4.co.uk 

Kate Conway / 020 7306 3751 / kconway@channel4.co.uk

For pictures, please go to: www.channel4.com/info/press  

For clips, please go to: www.youtube.com/channel4