Scott Kneller has put in a sparkling qualifying time in the men’s ski cross to qualify for the heats in 12th place at Cypress Mountain.

On another sparkling day on Cypress Mountain, Kneller was the 33rd and last competitor to have his qualifying run, only requiring to finish the course following the crash of the Czech Republic’s Zdenek Safar. The top 32 competitors would qualify for the heats.

With Ski Cross making its Olympic debut, the crowd was still buzzing as Kneller worked his way down the course at the Snowboard and Ski Cross Stadium.

The 20-year-old from Cooma looked confident as he worked his way around the bends and across the glistening snow, placing a number of fast splits to complete the course in a time of 1:13.85.

Kneller’s time was just under a second and a half slower than pace setter Michael Schmid of Denmark, while current world champion Andreas Matt qualified in 4th place.

Kneller was pleased with his first Olympic competition.

“I was just letting it run where I could and I finished 12th - I’m really happy,” Kneller said.

“I’ll probably get second gate pick for the first round and, look, finals are a different race altogether so we’ll see how we go.

“My shoulder has been unreal, I haven’t been bothered by it at all, it’s really good.”

Kneller said he knew of the prior accident but was unfazed.

“I heard that someone went down but I wanted to race it.

“I ski better when I’m on top of it and going for it so I didn’t want to sit back at all. I really attacked it, gave it 110 per cent.”

The heats will begin from 12.15 (Vancouver time) with Kneller drawing Norwegian Audun Groenvold (5th), Russian Egor Korotkov (20th) and Austrian Patrick Koller (28th). The top two will qualify for the quarter-finals from each heat.

David Polglase
AOC-Vancouver