Zoe Gillings Finishes 9th in FIS World Cup Event
British Snowboard Team Results from BEO and World Cup Events
Tuesday 22nd January 2008: The British World Cup Halfpipe, Freestyle, Snowboardcross and Junior Teams headed out to Europe in force last week, when they competed in the Burton European Open, Laax, Switzerland and the Nokia FIS World Cup Event, Bad Gastein, Austria. Zoe Gillings continued her bright start to the World Cup Season by finishing in 9th place, making that her third consecutive top ten placing so far this season!
British World Cup Snowboardcross Team
It was a wet start to the Nokia FIS World Cup Snowboardcross competition in Bad Gastein, Austria last week, and racing conditions were harsh for James Foster, who despite the sheet rain finished in a respectable 54th position overall. Hitting top form, 22 year old Zoe Gillings achieved her third top ten placing, and finished in 9th place overall. Gillings dominated the qualifying rounds and was leading the pack during the final, until halfway down the course, where she crashed out after an unexpected collision. Gillings has her sights set on a podium spot in the remaining six races of the season between now and March. "I am riding well enough to challenge at the top" said Gillings, who will be heading out to Colorado on the 24th January to compete in the 2008 Winter X Games, before resuming her World Cup season in Leysin, Switzerland on 1st February.
Ivy Taylor, Matt Higgins and Tim McGregor also headed out to Europe last weekend to compete in the Snowboardcross event at the Europa Cup, in Puy St Vincent, France. Matt and Tim made it through to the qualifying rounds, whilst Ivy stormed through to the final and finished in third place overall, her best result of the season so far. Ivy said: "my races went really well, I had the fastest qualification time and won the semi-finals by a good distance. In the finals though everyone fell and the two slowest riders ended up taking 1st and 2nd. It's all a bit of a blur but one girl speed checked which knocked us out of the way but I still managed to finish in 3rd place" go on the girls…!
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| Dan Wakeham - see profile |
British World Cup Halfpipe Freestyle and Junior Teams
The British World Cup Halfpipe, Freestyle and Junior Teams headed out to Laax, Switzerland last week to compete in the Slopestyle and Halfpipe disciplines in the 2008 Burton European Open, one of Europe's biggest freestyle snowboarding events. Dom Harrington, Lesley McKenna and newcomer, 16 year old Aimee Fuller lead the way for the British Teams, riding super strong throughout the competition. In the Halfpipe Dom made it through to the qualifiers and finished in 8th place in his heat, just missing out on a place in the semi finals. Lesley qualified first in her heat to go through to the semi finals were she finished in 15th place, narrowly missing out on a place in the final. Aimee finished in 5th place and 13th place overall in the Junior Girls Slopestyle and Halfpipe competition, which was an amazing start to her first competition season. Unfortunately a couple of team members sustained injuries during the slopestyle qualification stages and had to pull out of the next rounds. We wish Sam Cullum, Ben Kilner, Lee Tarran and Laura Berry (who fractured her collar bone before the BEO) a speedy recovery and rumour has it they will be back on the slopes again in a couple of weeks.
British Snowboard Team Results from the Burton European Open
Lesley McKenna - 15th place in Halfpipe Semi Final round
Dom Harrington - 8th place in Halfpipe qualifiers round, 30th in Slopestyle pre qualifiers round
Jack Shackelton - 11th place in Halfpipe pre qualifiers round and 41st place in Slopestyle pre qualifiers round
Dan Wakeham - 13th place in Halfpipe pre qualifiers round
Kate Foster - 20th place in Halfpipe qualifiers round
Sam Cullum - 13th place in Slopestyle pre qualifiers round, making it through to qualification round, but had to pull out due to injury during practice.
Ben Kilner - 21st place in Slopestyle pre qualifiers round
Amiee Fuller - 5th place overall in Junior Girls Slopestyle, 13th place overall in Junior Girls Halfpipe
The British Snowboard Team would like to thank the following for their invaluable support:
Sponsors: Zoom Airlines - www.flyzoom.com, Halliwells - www.halliwells.co.uk, FOGG - www.fogginsure.co.uk and Junior Squad sponsors, TSA - www.snowboardasylum.com and SNO!zone - www.snozone.co.uk
Funding organisations: UK Sport - www.uksport.gov.uk, TASS - www.tass.gov.uk, Sport Scotland - www.sportscotland.org.uk, BOA - www.boa.org.uk
