Winter Olympics: Snowboarder crashes out

Former Taupo girl Rebecca Sinclair has crashed out of the halfpipe event at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Photo / File

Former Taupo girl and Olympic snowboarder Rebecca Sinclair crashed in both her qualifying runs and failed to progress to the semifinals of the halfpipe event at the Sochi Olympics.

Sinclair crashed performing a 'crippler' trick during her first ride and was unable to complete the run early yesterday morning.

Her initial score of 32.25 left her in 13th place in her heat of 14 riders.

The top three riders in each heat would gain direct qualification to the finals while the fourth through to ninth placed would face semi-final rounds in their bid to make the final 12.

With the pressure on to improve her score to within the top nine, Sinclair pushed hard for the big moves in her second run.

All went well for the first three hits before she crashed out a second time, attempting a backside 540.

Sinclair upped her score to 48.25 but by the end of the heat her 11th place was not enough to progress any further.

"This was definitely not the result we were hoping for at all and definitely not the result Bex is capable of," commented her coach Tom Willmott. "We're really gutted, she's really disappointed."

The day had brought warm temperatures, making for soft and slow snow conditions in the halfpipe and fewer than half the field in heat one had been able to land clean runs.

"The halfpipe was in absolutely fantastic condition, the snow was soft but we ride these kinds of conditions all the time and by no means was the condition of the pipe a factor what so ever," Willmott said.

"It's been described as running a hundred metre sprint along a tight rope; unfortunately today Bex fell off."

The New Zealand Olympic Team will see Jossi and Beau-James Wells in competition on the freeski slopestyle course tomorrow and Katharine Eustace in day one of women's skeleton.