Emanuel Perathoner and Cécile Hernandez keep their calm to win gold on an incident-packed day at San Zan

From their vantage point to the south of the San Zan course, the first sight spectators see of the snowboard cross are figures punching through the horizon. Coming off the back of a left‑hand turn, racers come into view as they make the first of a series of jumps in what is also, perversely, a part of the course where you can pick up speed. The moment is over in a split second, as athletes disappear once again behind safety fences. The impact on the gathered crowds is undeniable though: they can’t help but let out a roar.

Snowboard cross is a sport with high technical demands, as athletes negotiate a series of challenges from – to adopt the lexicon – jumps and berms to rollers and drops, all along a winding course. But all this skill is subordinated to the generation of speed. Every movement is calculated to limit resistance and drag. Add the challenges to balance and navigation that come from racing with a physical disability and it is perhaps not surprising to find that the snowboard cross finals at the Winter Paralympics on Sunday were carnage.

• Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean lose 10-5 having led 5-3

• Victory against hosts would still put pair in semi-finals

Great Britain must defeat the host nation, Italy, in their final round‑robin match of the mixed doubles curling to secure a place in the semi-finals, after being roundly beaten by China.

Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean started well against the unbeaten pair of Wang Meng and Yang Jun and led at the halfway stage. Missed opportunities and a sharp improvement from their opponents, however, meant a 5-3 lead became a 10-5 defeat, with the eighth end left unplayed.