Yekaterina Ilyukhina won Russia"s first...

Under wet snow and temperatures near zero, Ilyukhina ran in pairs with Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands in the finals, and finished 0.23 seconds behind.

Sauerbreij complained about poor visibility, while Austria"s Marion Kreiner, who took the bronze, said she felt like "jumping into a swimming pool" during her race.

Unlike her opponents, the 22-year-old Russian athlete said bad weather had no impact on her performance.

"The weather was the same for all of us. Of course, it is much more pleasant to perform in a slight frost and on a hard snow. But I managed to make all the necessary adjustments... So everything was fine from the very beginning," she said.

The head coach of Russia"s snowboard team, Denis Tikhomirov, said he believed in the Olympic medal, but was nevertheless impressed by Ilyukhina"s performance.

"Ilyukhina did well after becoming the only Russian to compete in final rounds. She retained her courage and defeated very serious

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