Japanese ski jumper Sara Takanashi missed out on winning Japan's first medal of the Beijing Olympics, finishing fourth in a disappointing women's normal hill performance on Saturday at Zhangjiakou National Ski Jumping Centre.
Takanashi, with one bronze from the Pyeongchang Games four years earlier after twice being a gold-medal favorite, was fifth after a 108.7-point first jump, and moved up a place in the final round to finish with 224.1 points.
Slovene Ursa Bogataj, third in this year's World Cup standings, took gold with 239.0 points. Germany's Katharina Althaus, the first-round leader, was second on 236.8, while another Slovene, Nika Kriznar was third with 232.0.
"All my efforts over the past four years have resulted in this fourth place. So, I accept it and I am satisfied with it," said Takanashi.
But after entering the games as one of the jumpers to beat, the 25-year-old said she has mixed emotions.
"There were both good things and bad things over the last four years," she said with tears in her eyes.
"I think it's normal to work hard, but hard work doesn't mean a thing if results don't follow. I think my effort wasn't good enough."
Takanashi, whose 98.5-meter opening jump was quickly surpassed by four jumps of 100 meters or more, matched her fourth-place finish from the 2014 Sochi Games.
Japanese compatriots Yuki Ito and Yuka Seto finished 13th and 14th, respectively, while Kaori Iwabuchi was 18th.
Earlier in the day, Japanese men's ski jumping gold medal hopeful Ryoyu Kobayashi progressed in the normal hill event, his fourth-place finish moving him into the individual trial round.
Kobayashi leaped 99 meters to score 111.4 points, placing behind Norwegians Marius Lindvik and Robert Johansson and Piotr Zyla of Poland.
Yukiya Sato came 10th, Kobayashi's older brother Junshiro 26th and Naoki Nakamura 29th as all four Japanese jumpers progressed to the first competition round to be contested on Sunday.
