SNO!zone - Milton Keynes

Zoe Gillings, Britains No 1 snow sport athlete  demonstrated her fine  form today  taking  6^th place in the Snowboard World Cup in Arosa, Switzerland.  Since suffering a career threatening injury back in 2005, Zoe has again well and truly confirmed herself as one of the best Snowboardcross athletes in the World and made clear her intentions for Vancouver.  Today, Zoe beat every athlete ranked in front of her in the world despite her 6^th place overall finish.

Zoe started the day in a heat with three strong World Class athletes but quickly showed her experience and progressed through her first heat qualifying for the semi finals after an excellent first run.  Zoe then faced the current World No 2, Maelle Ricker (Canada) and Helene Olafsen (Norway) in the second heat which proved to be a nail bighting race. After a sluggish start, Zoe quickly caught and passed the World No 2, Ricker, and then set her sights on the second placed Olafsen.  The fight for second continued down the course but Olafsen just got the better of Zoe on the mid placed jump of the course which pushed Zoe into heavy snow on the side and consequently ended her race, Zoe crossed the finish line in 3^rd place.

Zoe then faced one more race in the small final which included Ricker (Canada) to decide places five to eight.  Zoe again caught and passed Ricker and then chased Riegler (Austria) for second place.  Despite losing a couple of seconds at the start Zoe kept her head and chased Riegler all the way down the course, choosing a perfect position to pass her just before the finish line; Zoe finished that  race in second place meaning 6^th overall.

This is another solid competition for Zoe which clearly shows she is one of the Worlds best. Zoe commented after the race, “There were some parts of today that didn’t go as planned and others that did but my favourite part was passing Riegler (Austria) just before the finish line. Im now looking forward to going home for Christmas but more importantly  collecting some really important video analysis software which one of my major sponsors, Pokerstars, from the Isle of Man have got me which will prove invaluable for my training towards the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.”

Zoe will head to Bad Gastein (Austria) for the second European leg of the World Cup tour on January 10^th.   For more information please visit Zoes website:- www.zoegillings.com.