Snowboardcrosser Martin Nörl missed a surprise at the Olympic Games after a fall. The 24-year-old from Adlkofen stormed into the semi-finals without any problems, but fell there and finished eighth in the final payroll.
As in 2014, gold went to world champion Pierre Vaultier from France in Sochi, ahead of Jarryd Hughes (Australia) and the Spaniard Regino Hernandez.
“Eighth place at the Olympics, that’s a good result. The fall was a pity, but I didn’t get off to a good start. That was the problem,”said Nörl. Paul Berg (Konstanz), who won the World Cup at Val Thorens in France in December, dropped out in the quarter-finals, while Konstantin Schad (Miesbach) dropped out in the last sixteen,”That’s not a break in the leg, we’re continuing our course,”said sports director Stefan Knirsch.
Olympic debutant Nörl first won both his eighth and quarter-finals, before he crashed in the semi-finals and saved only fourth place. He would have needed at least third place for the medal run of the best six snowboarders. In the small final round about places seven to twelve, Nörl finished second.
“We wanted to present our sport well in front of the many German spectators, unfortunately this didn’t work out well. But there’s more to come, next year’s World Cup is once again,”said Berg, who will be taking part in the 4. He was third at the Olympic dress rehearsal at Feldberg in February.
The competition was overshadowed by a severe fall of the Sochi second Nikolay Oljunin. The 26-year-old Olympic athlete from Russia was treated on the track for a long time and finally transported off on a sled.