STONEHAM (Kyodo) Snowboarder Tomoka Takeuchi had to take a back seat to Amelie Kober of Germany on Sunday, settling for second by a small margin in the women's parallel giant slalom at a World Cup meet in Canada.
Takeuchi failed to win her first career title and finished runnerup for the third time this season on the World Cup circuit. Despite losing to Turin Olympic silver medalist Kober by 0.05 second, Takeuchi was not discouraged.
"I am happy. I didn't have to take advantage of any mistakes that my opponents made but I got through to the final on my own merit," said Takeuchi, who was fourth at the world championships in South Korea last month.
Takeuchi beat Doris Guenther of Austria, who leads the World Cup standings in the parallel events, in the semifinal round to book her spot in the final.