So close and yet so far for O'Connor in Sochi

Ireland's Seamus O'Connor has missed out on a place in the men's half-pipe final at the Winter Olympics in Sochi today.

O'Connor's best score of 54 points during this afternoon's semi-final was only good enough for an nineth-place finish, with only the top six riders progressing to join the 12-strong field for this evening's final.

After top-scoring with 71.50 points during this morning's qualifiers, the 16-year-old will be disappointed not to have been able to improve on that score during the semi-finals when the surface of the pipe had started to cut up badly.

The teenager may regret his decision to attempt an ambitious 1260 at the end of an otherwise clean second-run, that could have otherwise been enough to see him through.