Charlotte Bankes’ hopes of gold in the snowboard cross were dashed as the world No1 failed to make it through her quarter-final in Beijing on Wednesday.
The Briton, who had competed for France at the past two Winter Olympics before a switch of allegiance to the land of her birth, had gone in as the event favourite as world champion and the dominant force on the World Cup circuit.
She looked confident in qualifying and her opening elimination race but a small error at the start of her quarter-final saw her having to force her way back into contention.
The 26-year-old from Hemel Hempstead had moved into the lead at the second check point but Canada’s Tess Critchlow found great pace at the end to force her way over the line ahead of Australia’s Belle Brockhoff by just one hundredth of a second.
With only the top two qualifying, Bankes missed out on the semi-finals just eight hundredths of a second off the heat winner.
After bowing out of the competition, Bankes said: “I can’t explain [what happened]. A very dense field and I made a mistake. I didn’t manage to find the solutions. It’s a tight race and unfortunately it didn’t go my way. I don’t know what happened. It’s frustrating to do it today. I’ve had a great season but to have my worst comp today is tough.”
There was redemption for American Lindsey Jacobellis in the final. As a 20-year-old in the inaugural Olympic snowboard event, Jacobellis had been cruising to the gold but did a celebratory grab of her board, crashed and lost out on the top spot. Sixteen years later at her last Games, she finally won Olympic gold.
After mixed curling duo Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds missed out on a medal on Tuesday, it means the wait for a British medal goes on.
