Tuesday, March 20, 2012

On the podium at the World Cup Finals!

I finished the season last week on the podium at the final world cup of the winter.

It was a great ending to a brilliant season. All of my results have been in the top ten this season and I’ve made it to the finals in 5 out of the 8 competitions.

The only thing that had been eluding me was a podium finish, so when I finished in 3rd place at the world cup finals it was just brilliant.

It was a really fun and eventful race. I qualified well in 6th place so was feeling good for the finals day.

My first heat went well and I got through to the semis without too much trouble.

In the semi-final I had some girls trying to pass me from behind but I managed to fend them off to get myself through into the final for the 5th time this season.

In the final I got out of the gate pretty well but then didn’t ride the first few features quite as fast as some of the others so I was in 5th place. Going into the last turn I was doing all I could to pass when there was a crash, Olympic champion Mielle Ricker who was in the lead had fallen! I passed around her so I was then in 4th. Then the girl who was in 3rd place, Dominique, went down as well! I had to turn very sharply to avoid crashing into her and lost a lot of my speed, so much so that she had got up again and it was a race to the finish line. We both went off the final jump together, neither of us having enough speed to make it to the landing but not really caring at that moment that we were going to land on the flat and it was going to hurt. We both slammed onto the snow and struggled to keep control. Dominique bounced up and flipped over the front of her board while I stayed on my feet allowing me to get over the finished line just in front of her to win the Bronze.

It was a very close finish and just goes to show how it’s never over in snowboard cross until you cross the line.

This 3rd place finish meant I finished the season ranked 6th in the world.

I want to say a massive thank you to my sponsors Pokerstars, Optimal Payments, Isle of Man Sport Aid and BMW as well as my official suppliers Oxess snowboards, K2 boots + bindings, Von Zipper Goggles, Giro Helmets and Dare2B clothing for their help this season. I also want to say thanks to all the Manx businesses and people who've used www.IsleofDeals.com. Every one of you is assisting me on journey towards Olympic gold. Thank you.