Daniela Ulbing of Austria competes as the squirrel (encircled) manages to escape

An intrepid squirrel came within a whisker of meeting a sticky end on Saturday when it scampered across the snowboard parallel giant slalom course during a race. Harbouring an apparent death wish, the furry intruder skipped under the board of Daniela Ulbing when she was in full flight, but the Austrian recovered deftly to beat Russian Milena Bykova and reach the quarter-finals.