Winter Olympics: Charlotte Bankes out of snowboard cross in quarter-finals

Great Britain's best medal hope Charlotte Bankes suffered a shock quarter-final exit in the women's snowboard cross at the Winter Olympics.

The 26-year-old, a strong favourite to add the Olympic title to her 2021 World Championship crown, finished third in her last-16 race.

It followed a season in which Bankes, who defected from France to Team GB in late 2018, earned five World Cup podium finishes from six races.

"I can't explain," she told BBC Sport.

"I've had a great season so far. This is my worst result of the season and having that at the Olympics is tough. I'm just sorry for everybody that's watching and all the team that's around me.

"We've worked so hard to get this far. We've been riding really well here and to come away from it is tough."

She added: "I just wanted to give my best today and it didn't go my way."

The United States' Lindsey Jacobellis won gold - her nation's first of these Olympics - 16 years after winning silver at the Turin Games in 2006.

The 36-year-old famously showboated while in the lead, costing her the title, but finally takes the gold at her fifth Olympics.

France's Chloe Trespeuch won silver, with Canada's Meryeta O'Dine competing the podium with bronze.

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After a shaky start, Bankes looked to have taken control of her quarter-final, but in the end stages Canada's Tess Critchlow and Australia's Belle Brockhoff just edged ahead to qualify for the next round.

"It's not an easy day today, it's windy. We knew it could happen here, we had that in November [at the World Cup]," she said.

"It's just a very dense field. I made a mistake in bank five. It's not been an easy bank, we tried to find solutions.

"Maybe I didn't do a perfect bank. Tess manages to come inside and disturb the end of my bank. I pushed through to the outside and didn't manage to find solutions. It's a tight race and unfortunately it didn't go my way.

"I've been doing good training. I had a really good training day yesterday. This morning was going well too, I don't know what happened."

Bankes will be back in action on Saturday in the mixed team snowboardcross with Huw Nightingale.

'A lot of excitement, a lot of pressure' - reaction

British slopestyle snowboarder Aimee Fuller told BBC Radio 5 Live: "[It is] a real, real blow because there was a lot of excitement also a lot of pressure on Charlotte Bankes going into this event. She was the one to watch."

Fuller added: "She is a master when it comes to dealing with pressure but looking at today's race it just didn't quite go her way.

"There are such fine lines. You make one tiny mistake and you are out and unfortunately she was just pipped to the corner and once the leader was out in front there was absolutely no way she could get past.

"Success at these Olympic Games really helps funds and the next generation. It's people like Bankes that inspire the next generation and seeing her performance today, even though it wasn't the result we were all hoping for, it was a brave one and one that she should be proud of."

Five-time Olympic skier Graham Bell, providing analysis on BBC TV, added: "It was just a split-second decision by Charlotte. Do I go one way or the other?

"Charlotte's trying to go on the inside. If she's already thought about going on the outside, maybe pre-empted a mistake from Critchlow, then those two would have gone through, and Brockhoff wouldn't have had the speed to come past. But that is snowboard cross."

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