06 January 2004

Eighteen year old Zoe Gillings proved yesterday that she has every chance of following her more experienced snowboarding compatriot, Olympian Lesley McKenna to the top of the sport's world rankings, with 6th place in the World Cup Boardercross in Bad Gastein, Austria.

Plenty of falls on tough terrain
It was a race of highs and lows for Zoe, who was fourth in her first World Cup in Canada before Christmas. She started brilliantly as second fastest in the qualifying run on a very difficult course.

The top 16 went through to the quarter finals where they race in heats of four with the top two progressing to the semis and final respectively. The heats featured a high number of falls on difficult terrain. Zoe was no exception falling in the quarter finals and semi's, missing the final by half a board's length.

British girls no.1 and no.3 in the World
While McKenna is currently no.1 in the world in Half-pipe and will not be challenged until her next World Cup half pipe event in Kreischberg, Austria later this month, Isle of Man based Zoe vaulted to third place in the Snowboardcross world ranking..

Zoe explained: 'I was made up¹ with qualifying in 2nd, and a 6th place at World Cup is great, but I know I should have made the final so do feel disappointed. Still, being 3rd place on the World Cup standing is pretty amazing'.

Results
1st Lindsey JACOBELLIS (USA)
2nd Dominque MALTAIS (CAN)
3rd Maria DANIELSSON (SWE)
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6th Zoe GILLINGS (GBR)

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