Canterbury skier Millie Knight achieved her target of a top-five finish in her first ever Paralympic competition in Russia on Wednesday morning.

The 15-year-old King’s School pupil produced an accomplished run to finish sixth of 10 starters in the first run of the visually impaired slalom in Sochi - a race brought forward two days due to fluctuating weather conditions in the southern Russian resort.

Britain’s youngest ever Winter Paralympian, and the youngest competitor in the race, then improved her time to achieve her pre-race goal of a top-five spot in the second run three hours later.

Knight and guide Rachael Ferrier, 18, stopped the clock in 1.09.87 in the first run - nine seconds behind ParalympicGB teammate and leader Jade Etherington.

However a solid second run was completed in a time of 1.08.90 to see Knight improve to fifth overall when the two times were added together, though moments later Etherington was eventually pipped to gold by Russia’s Aleksandra Frantceva by just 0.65secs.

Chatham’s Charlotte Evans, the guide for GB’s Kelly Gallagher, suffered disappointment after a crash during the first run put them out of contention.