FREESTYLE SKIING/SNOWBOARD: Australia were unlucky to miss out on the chance of another Lillehammer 2016 medal when they were knocked out of the team ski and snowboard cross event at Hafjell Freepark.

The relay event featured Australia’s Mollie Fernandez (snowboard cross), Zali Offord (ski cross) Alex Dickson (snowboard cross) and Doug Crawford (ski cross) and saw with one athlete leaving once their teammate had crossed the finish line (with each team being a maximum of 1.39 seconds behind before the gate automatically dropped).

The Aussies appeared to have made it through to the final after finishing second in their semi final after a strong final leg from Crawford.

However due to technical difficulties some gates throughout the race did not release riders at the right time and it was decided that the final leg of the race – the men’s ski cross – would be re-run.

Crawford started 1.18 seconds behind Germany and 0.21 seconds ahead of his two other opponents but he was unable to match his earlier heroics, finishing fourth.

“The way I saw it was that the German rider came in just before Alex in first but out gate dropped first.

“There was obviously a glitch which is stuff that can happen with computers. There’s nothing we could do about it.

“We finished on a high by winning the small final. It wasn’t the result we were after but we still did well.”

The event rounded out the ski and snowboard cross events in Lillehammer of which were exceptionally fruitful for the Aussie Team.

Offord and Dickson claimed silver, alpine specialist Louis Muhlen won bronze while Fernandez (4th) and Doug Crawford (6th) all performed exceptionally well.

“Fifth place is still pretty good and we did our country proud,” said Offord.

“It is really cool working with the snowboard cross guys as we don’t get to do it much so it’s really fun.

“We’ve learnt so much even from today. We are holding our heads high so it doesn’t matter about this result because we have friends for life.”

Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au