BASINGSTOKE skier Laurie Taylor took part in his second event of the Winter Olympics on Saturday, as he was part of the Great Britain team in the first ever alpine team event.

Featuring head-to-head racing over a shortened parallel slalom course with giant slalom gates, the event sees two women and two men from each country face off against each other with one point recorded for each victory.

Taylor along with Britain’s top skier Dave Ryding, Charlie Guest ad Alex Tilley caused an upset in the first round as wins for Ryding and Tilley saw them tie the encounter 2-2.

That brought into play the combined times rule with Britain edging it to set up a quarter-final clash with alpine skiing powerhouse Norway.

Victory in that would have meant the chance to race for a medal, but this time the combined timing ruling came down against the Brits, as Norway progressed by 0.21 seconds. They eventually took bronze, with Switzerland beating Austria to the title.

Last Thursday Taylor produced a great performance on his Winter Olympics debut in the slalom event as he finished 26th overall in 1:43.41.

Having skied 51st out of 80 skiers he finished 27th in his first run which earned him a top 30 and a second run in the competition where he finished 25th.

Fellow Brit Ryding came in ninth and Taylor’s finish was one better than his debut in 2010, so things look promising for Beijing in 2022.

Talking after the slalom Taylor said: "I'm so happy to have made it through to the finish line, it was a fight to get down.

"Conditions were decent but the snow was aggressive so it's really unforgiving if you make a mistake, it amplifies it and it's hard to deal with.

"It was super fun, the first time getting a clean course at one of these events and to finish top 30. That's where I was hoping for. I didn't know I could get it so I'm so chuffed.”