SOCHI, RUSSIA – Tomoka Takeuchi’s pursuit of a second individual medal at the Sochi Winter Olympics ended in the second round of the women’s snowboard parallel slalom on Saturday.
The 30-year-old Takeuchi, who won silver in Wednesday’s parallel giant slalom, was disqualified on her second run of the 1/8 finals. Racing against Julie Zogg of Switzerland, Takeuchi trailed by 0.20 seconds in their first run.
She appeared to have overtaken her 21-year-old opponent on the second run but lost her balance and missed a gate.
“What a waste that was,” Takeuchi said. “On my first run, I lost my balance and fell behind, and the second time I attacked and failed. As long as I can be competitive, I want to try again. I’ll quit if I’m not going to do at least as well as this.”
Takeuchi, who has had much better success in the longer giant parallel slalom, was the 13th fastest of 16 boarders who advanced out of the qualifying round.
