An equipment malfunction has put Jenny Owens out of the Flaine World Cup ski cross, the Perisher Blue skier losing a ski in qualifying and running off the course.

The result was a disappointment, coming as it did just after her fourth placing in Les Contamines last weekend.

“I skied well once training kicked off and was first out for qualifying but unfortunately my ski came off around one of the turns half way down,” Owens said.

“This had (happened) in training in Germany but we thought we had fixed the problem. We now know what (it) is and we're getting some new boots sent to the next World Cup so that it doesn't happen again.”

Five-time World Cup champion Ophelie David of France won the event from Canadian Ashleigh McIvor

Owens has slipped to 11th place on the World Cup standings on 65 points. David leads the standings on 230 points, 49 clear of Norwegian skier Hedda Berntsen.

In the men’s event, Ski and Snowboard Australia skier Scott Kneller finished in 51st place in qualifying, but missed a place in the final by just 0.73 seconds.

“Scotty missed qualification again, a couple of placings better but by about the same margin as the previous events,” said OWI Ski Cross coach Matt Lyons.

“He's getting some things right but still making some crucial errors that in this environment are simply too costly. He's still keen though and working hard and the skiing is improving every event; just some of his tactical approaches this time around were not quite right.”

Czech skier Tomas Kraus took the gold ahead of former World Cup alpine racer Casey Puckett of the USA.