Japan's Momoka Muraoka was denied her third gold of the Beijing Paralympics on Monday when her German rival Anna-Lena Forster came from behind to win the women's sitting super combined.
Forster, who was beaten by the Japanese in the downhill and super-G sitting events over the past two days, finally got her gold when she finished 0.77 second ahead of Muraoka, with Liu Sitong of China skiing to bronze.
Muraoka topped the super-G phase of the competition early on Monday, building a 6.07-second buffer over Forster, but the German's aggressive ski in the slalom saw her clock a time 6.84 seconds faster in the more technical of the two races that make up the super combined event.
Muraoka said that while she was satisfied with how she skied in the super-G, slalom is not her strength and she had yet to become familiar with the slope.
"The snow is so different it's shocking," she said. "Even the hardness is different, and the reason I lost today was because I couldn't adjust my body and ski well."
"But it's not as if I have demonstrated 100 percent of my potential here, so I want to make the necessary adjustments for the remaining technical races," she added.
Japan's other entrant Yoshiko Tanaka finished fourth.
Muraoka, who won gold in the giant slalom at the 2018 Paralympics in Pyeongchang, still has the slalom and giant slalom events remaining at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre.
If she can win one more gold in China, she will become the first Japanese to collect four career Winter Paralympic titles. She will also equal the record for the most gold medals won by a Japanese athlete at a single Winter Games.
Forster has now won one gold and two silver at the Beijing Games to take her career tally to eight medals, the same total as Muraoka.
In the men's sitting super combined, Taiki Morii failed to secure his third medal in Beijing when he went off course in the slalom.
He was in the running for first career gold in his sixth Paralympics after ranking second in the super-G in the morning, just 0.50 second off the time of the eventual gold medalist from Norway, Jesper Pedersen.
Fellow Japanese Akira Kano also did not finish, while Takeshi Suzuki came fifth.
"To be honest, I knew getting a medal was unlikely. This time I skied (the slalom) with the aim of getting my body used to the course and the type of snow," said Suzuki, who took home gold in the slalom in Sochi eight years ago.
"But I don't want to lose to the younger competitors, so I intend to face this challenge with all my strength," the 33-year-old said.
