GB Park and Pipe snowboarder Katie Ormerod got her 2015-16 season off to a great start when she won the Pleasure Jam, which took place on the last weekend of November in Dachstein, Austria.
The invitation-only World Snowboard Tour event attracts the best snowboarders in the world, and this win for Katie Ormerod sends a huge signal out to the snowboarding world about her return to form.
After having reconstructive surgery on her knee following an ACL injury in summer 2014, Katie returned to snow this summer and has come back stronger than ever.
Katie qualified for the finals in top position with teammate Rowan Coultas qualifying third in the men’s. The finals were run in tricky conditions, but despite the weather challenges, Katie took a huge win with a cab 5 to backside 7.
Rowan unfortunately fell in his finals run but still brought home a top 10 result.
Elsewehere in the ski world other British athletes were competing at the weekend. Snowboard Cross athlete Zoe Gillings-Brier had a solid return to action in the European Cup in Pitztal last week and Andrew Musgrave put in an excellent early season performance for the British Nordic Team at the opening Cross Country World Cup in Ruka, Finland
The British Nordic Team coaches were delighted with Andrew ‘Muzzy’ Musgrave’s opening World Cup races. His fantastic 13th place in Saturday’s 10km Freestyle was a fantastic result for the Scot, and was added to yesterday with a 16th position overall in the 15km Classic. These two results were an improvement on Friday’s 92nd position in the Sprint Classic final.
British team athlete Annika Taylor was competing in her first ever World Cup in Ruka, and earned her best ever Sprint score of 105 FIS points, finishing 50th out of 86 competitors and just 5 seconds off qualifying for the quarter finals in the Sprint Classic on Friday. She then finished 70th in the Ladies 5km Freestyle on Saturday and 62nd in the 10km Classic on Sunday.
Andrew Young was competing in Gala, Norway at a FIS race where in the 1.5km freestyle Sprint he was 10th fastest in the qualifiers, but unfortunately got knocked out in the quarter-finals. This meant his final placing was a very respectable 14th overall in a pool of 141 racers.
Snowboard Cross athlete Zoe Gillings-Brier had a solid return to action in the European Cup in Pitztal last week, where she finished 5th.
Zoe, who took a year out to focus on training last season, was delighted with her 5th place in the Europa Cup in Pitztal, this followed a 17th place finish in the first race the day before. Gillings-Brier said: “I’m extremely happy with the (competition) results, I wasn’t expecting to finish in the top 10 this early on in the season so I’m over the moon.”
Zoe will now travel to Montafon in Austria to compete in her first World Cup of the season on 9th December.
In the opening Telemark World Cup for the season in Hintertux, top British racer Jaz Taylor finished 6th in yesterday’s Sprint, following a 5th place in Saturday’s Parallel Sprint and 9th in Friday’s Sprint. Taylor was joined by team mates Jasper Taylor, James French, Fred Thomas, Louis Hatchwell, as well as Sion Bingham and Robert Houstoun from the British Development Squad who brought in a host of top 30 results between them
There was disappointment for Alex Tilley, who DNFd in both the GS and Slalom races in Aspen over the weekend. She will now focus on the Europa Cup races in Trysil on 7th and 8th December.
