High-flying Kiwi misses out onOlympic medal
Kiwi snowboarder Carlos Garcia Knight has missed out on a medal in the men’s Slopestyle finals at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.
After leading the pack at the end of the first round with a massive effort of 78.60 from the judges, the nerves got the better of the Christchurch local in his second and third runs.
The first-time Olympian naturally disappointed not to bring home a medal was unsure how he felt about his fifth place.
‘‘I have mixed emotions. I know had so much more to give but I’m happy I landed a solid run.’’
He was thankful for the support from back home and also the loud Kiwi presence at Phoenix Park, South Korea yesterday.
‘‘On this course you have to be perfect. The last run I was really nervous up top.’’
Although the Kiwi came close to a medal-winning effort, the sec- ond and third rounds of these events are crucial and usually when the cream of the crop pull out all the stops to land their best runs, such as USA’s gold medal winner Redmond Gerard.
Garcia Knight went for it in the third round, but didn’t pull off the magic that his competitors managed to do.
His first run score would be his best before a less impressive sec- ond run of just 52.98 and a nervous flop in his third of 24.35.
Garcia Knight finished fifth behind USA’s Redmond Gerard (87.16), Canadian’s Max Parrot (86.00), Mark McMorris (85.20) and Norway’s Staale Sandbech (81.01).
His qualifying round score of 80.10 also wouldn’t have got him on the podium in the finals.
Garcia’s shot at becoming New Zealand’s second medallist in the history of the event was not to be. New Zealand remains with one medal from 25 years ago when Annelise Coberger claimed silver in the alpine skiing slalom at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.