Australian Sami Kennedy-Sim is ruing a broken pole strap after a poor start ruined her chance to race for a Winter Olympic medal in the women's ski cross.
The 29-year-old finished about two seconds behind the two qualifiers of her semi-final in PyeongChang after being unable to make up ground from a slow push-off.
After showing promise by leading her quarter-final from start to finish on Friday, Kennedy-Sim finished eighth after losing in the four-woman small final.
"Unfortunately I had a bit of bad luck with breaking my pole in the start and getting stuck," she said.
"(I was) exercising my fitness and my strength by having to squat my way up the wu-tang, which didn't feel very good.
"That was an element that wasn't really in my control. For me, I've got to focus on the controllables and that's my process.
"Yeah OK, I can be diligent with checking my equipment every night but it's the first time it's failed."
Ninth after the previous day's seeding run, Kennedy-Sim only had to avoid crashing out of her 1/8 final after Italian Lucrezia Fantelli pulled out of the three-woman heat, with the top two progressing.
In her quarter-final, she held off Swedish world No.10 Lisa Andersson to win easily but she fell well behind with a shot at a medal for the taking in the four-woman semi-final.
There was a glimmer of hope she could progress to the medal race after moving up one spot into third when Andersson crashed midway through before the Sydneysider crossed third.
Kennedy-Sim held third place for most of her minor final but was pipped at the line by 0.1 second by Switzerland's Sanna Luedi.
"It's hard not to be disappointed with an eighth because you know it means you were fourth in the small final," she said.
"But that was a solid battle and a step up for me and the best result that I've had all season and I'm going to build on this."
The result improves on her Sochi 2014 placing of 28th.
Kelsey Serwa continued Canadian dominance of ski cross by winning the final.
Serwa's teammate Brittany Phelan took the silver with Fanny Smith of Switzerland claiming bronze.
Meanwhile, Australian short track speed skater Daniel Greig has finished 22nd in the 1000m in a time of one minute 9.99 seconds.
Greig was 2.04 seconds off Dutch gold medallist Kjeld Nuis.
