News

Scott Kneller 7th in Olympic ski cross

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Scott Kneller  produced the best ski cross racing of his short career to finish 7th in the Olympic debut of this event. 

Scott was the lowest ranked competitor entering the event on Day 10 (Sunday 21 February) but produced four quality runs down the challenging course to almost land himself in medal round. 

In the semi-final, Scott needed a top-two finish to reach the four place final and after a good start found himself in second place halfway down the track. Canadian Christopher Delbosco, however then overtook Scott and pushed him out of the necessary top two finish.

In the small final Scott gave it his all and unfortunatley pushed his luck a bit far on a risky manoeuvre and fell to the snow, before hauling himself back up to finish third and secure seventh place in the event.

The result was a tremendous result so early in his skier cross career, far surpassing his previous best finish of a 15th in the test event on the same track last year.

The following quotes from Scott say it all.

"My God. Amazing, hey?" Kneller said.

"I really came out and gave the performance of a lifetime so I couldn't be happier. It's incredible, really."

"Del (Chris Del Bosco) is the best in the world, and he made an amazing pass on me - it was unlucky I was behind Audun (Groenvold) because he was checking the pace all the time and sketching. But seventh place, I'll take it. It's pretty incredible.

Kneller reflected on his battle to just make the Games.

"It's been a struggle to say the least. I broke my collarbone and had a brain contusion on the fifth of January in St Johanan in Austria, so for me to be here, and to be in my best form, it's unbelievable."

"I mean, I just scraped into the Games, I was the second last to qualify, so to do that, to come here on such an amazing day in such an amazing venue and to deliver my best performances, it's just incredible.

"I've had probably a week and a half on snow (since the accident) and this is my first race back, so you've gotta love it."

In the gold medal race, Switzerland's Schmid won the gold medal ahead of Matt from  Austria, with Groenvold in the bronze medal position.