Damon Hayler has finished in ninth place in the opening round of the snowboard cross World Cup in Chapelco, Argentina, after a tweaked knee in the round of 32 eliminated his chances of a podium result.

Hayler had finished in second position in the qualifying round behind reigning World Cup champion Pierre Vaultier of France, but felt the knee go after landing flat on the final jump in his first head-to-head finals round.

Though the 32-year-old Sydney rider finished second in that round of 32 encounter, he opted for a safety-first approach in the round of 16, just pulling through the gate to ensure he registered a start and could claim ninth position overall on the basis of his qualifying round result.

Olympic Winter Institute team-mate Alex Pullin finished in 31st place in the qualifying round, scraping into the finals.

But that put him up against Vaultier and also former World Championships silver medallist Francois Boivin of France in his opening four-man finals race, and the 20-year-old Mt Buller rider was not able to finish ahead of them for a place in the next round.

Olympic Winter Institute Head Snowboard Coach Ben Wordsworth was a disappointed man after the event.

“Damon had been riding so strong in training,” Wordsworth said, “and he put in a great qualifying run.”

“He’d also won the final lead-up South America Cup race at the start of the week, and he was feeling really confident.”

“So it was very disappointing to have the knee go.”

“But we have a couple of months off now, and Damon doesn’t think it’s as bad as the last time.”

“We’ll have it checked out when we get back to Sydney next week.”

Hayler had injured the knee 12 months ago prior the start of the 2007/08 World Cup, keeping him out of action for the first two rounds of that season.

Vaultier went on to win the Chapelco event from Stian Sivertzen of Norway and Mateusz Ligocki of Poland.

The next round of the 2008/09 Snowboard Cross World Cup will take place in Arosa, Switzerland, on December 19-21.