World Cup happy days

January 31, 2008 on 10:51 pm | In Snowboarding |

I am just back from Bardonecchia in Italy where I was riding in the 3rd World Cup of the 07/08 season. The event was held in the same pipe as the Turin Olympics were held in so I did not hold out much hope for a good result as this particular pipe has never been lucky for me in the past. I went there with fellow Roxy rider and Norweigan ripper, Lisa Wiik after having been to Kitzbuel for a few days to watch Alain Baxter compete in the Slalom event there. I had been really impressed by Alain’s skiing and was gutted for him that he had such a late start number and therefor little chance of making it into the top 30 and gaining World Cup points.

I was definitely inspired though and as I left Kitzbuel I was very much looking forward to my next World Cup after quite a long break from the World Cup tour. I knew I was riding well after having won the qualification at the Burton European Open in Laax but I did not want to count my chickens before the hatched so to speak and all my past performances in the Bardonecchia pipe ended up in crash results. I got through the qualification round easily and then made it through the semi final round and into the finals in 5th place.

I was very happy to have made the finals and at that point I would have been happy with 6th which is the worst you can do from the finals. I rode well in the finals though, just missing out on third spot and ended up in a very happy 4th place. This is my best result since I broke my ankle nearly three years ago and puts me in 5th place in the overall pipe rankings, the best of any UK alpine athlete this season.   

It was generally a great weekend for UK snowboarding as Jenny Jones rode into a very respectable 4th place in the slopestyle at the X-Games and Zoe Gillings also rode into 6th place in the Boarder X at the X-Games. Also at the X-Games, skier Emma Longsdale skied into 9th place in the half pipe ski event. Go the UK Ladies!!!!!!! I am now chilling at home for a few days watching a blizzard outside my window and wondering if I will get in any home snowboarding before I go off to the US to film for a few weeks. I certainly hope so. It is great to see a good Scottish blizzard anyway!! 

Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.