|
Swiss high roll strengthens McKennas world ranking |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 07 November 2007 |
|
AVIEMORE snowboard star Lesley McKenna continued her good start to the season in the Swiss resort of Saas Fee with an 11th place in the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup – despite the UK's sports funding bodies dropping their support.
McKenna now stands ninth in the overall world rankings in the contest for the 2007/08 season following the second round of competition on Friday.
She was the top finisher for the Great Britain team in Saas Fee, where both the men and the women were in action. McKenna put down a solid run in her second qualification run to post her 11th place.
Lesley McKenna::in the half-pipe in Friday's competition in Saas Fee
"I was really happy with how my riding is coming back together," she said. "I am starting to feel the confidence I need to get really top results again. It is exciting as I wasn't sure if I would get back to this stage."
Fellow Roxy Team rider and good friend Kjersti Buaas from Norway took the ladies' top slot – her first win on the circuit for more than five years – with newcomer Chen Xu from China in second.
Reigning World Champion Manuela Pesko finished in third place and maintains her yellow leader's jersey following a win on the opening day of the season in Cardrona in New Zealand.
The whole GB team, including Aviemore's Angus Leith, rode well in practice in Saas Fee, showing that their summer training is starting to pay off.
Unfortunately, they were blighted with bad luck when it came to the competition as they all crashed in at least one of their qualification runs.
McKenna said: "It was difficult to get a clean run down as we had only had one training session in the pipe before the contest due to bad weather. A lot of the competitors were crashing."
Following an eighth place in the opening FIS World Cup half-pipe of the season in Cardrona, Friday's display meant that McKenna cemented her position in the top ten.
The GB snowboard team will now be heading to Colorado in a few weeks for a training camp and an American Grand Prix event. However, McKenna will not be travelling with them as she is currently receiving no funding from either UK Sport or the Scottish Institute of Sport.
read the article in full over at th strathspey herald.co.uk
|
News 
