Snowsport GB will launch their new talent identifying initiative ‘Talent Trail’ at this year’s Metro Ski and Snowboard Show, being held at London’s Olympia from Wednesday 22 until Sunday 26 October. The scheme aims to identify potential skiing stars of the future by working with the British Ski Schools, Clubs & Academies to identify the up and coming talent which will then be fed into Britain’s elite training programmes.
The goal of the scheme is for the highly qualified coaches and instructors working in the Ski Schools and Clubs to talent-spot on behalf of British Ski Team Coaches, encourage talented youngsters to start ski racing and to progress onto training programmes run by either British Ski Academies in the Alps or their Home Nation Governing Body – Snowsport England, Snowsport Scotland or Snowsport Wales. The ultimate aim is to create a pool of talented racers to feed into the British Alpine Ski Teams.

The Talent Trail stand at the Metro Ski and Snowboard show will be staffed by Duncan Freshwater, Performance Director of Snowsport GB and Gareth Trayner, Head Coach of the British Children’s Team and member of Team GB at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Joining them will be current British Alpine Ski Team members Alain Baxter and Andy Noble, as well as representatives from British Ski Schools, Clubs and Academies.
To help Snowsport GB in their search for the next skiing champion, the Ski Club of Great Britain will be calling on members and recreational skiers alike to let themselves be known if they feel they think they have the talent to be the next big thing in snowsports - or indeed if they think they have children with potential. The Ski Club will play a key role alongside coaches and British ski schools in trying to help Britain identify its future champions using its website www.skiclub.co.uk to communicate with the wider snowsport community.

The Metro Ski and Snowboard Show attracts over 35,000 visitors annually, making it one of the largest shows of its kind in the world and the ideal venue to launch the Talent Trail initiative - Snowsport GB are hoping to find future ski champions in the crowd this year!

Between them, the Clubs, Ski Schools and Academies have helped thousands of young British skiers get started racing – so they know talent when they see it! Everyone involved in Talent Trail is excited to be involved on the Performance Pathway – taking kids from their first lessons on their first ski holiday right through to competing at the level of number one British female skier Chemmy Alcott.
Duncan Freshwater, Performance Director for Snowsport GB said “the show is a fantastic opportunity for any budding skiers to find out more about the sport .This is the first year that all the groups involved in the Talent Trail initiative will be together at the show – from the grassroots level of the excellent British Ski Schools through to the professional athletes and coaches”

This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who thinks that they might have the next Bode Miller on their hands to discuss how best to help their kids progress in this amazing sport. The Talent Trail stand will be on the gallery level at Olympia this year at stand G172 alongside Snowsport GB Sponsor Citizen Watch UK Ltd who will be offering the opportunity to win one of their watches every day of the show to visitors to the Talent Trail

For more information on Talent Trail see www.snowsportgb.com.talenttrail

For more information on the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show see www.metrosnow.co.uk

Zoe Gillings, Britain’s No.1 female snowboarder, started her season in superb form, finishing 4th in the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup in Chapelco, Argentina on Saturday 13th September 2008. Gillings qualified in 7th in the time trials on Friday, with the top 16 progressing to the quarter finals. Gillings then commandingly won both her quarter final and semi final in difficult winding conditions on the 1,200 metre long course.

In the final, against the other three top riders in the competition, Gillings unfortunately fell, and finished fourth, behind the eventual winner and world No.1, Lindsay Jacobellis from the US. Zoe was delighted with her performance - “To reach the final in my first World Cup competition of the year is really exciting. It proves I am one of the best riders in the world, and I know I can finish on the top of the podium this season.” Gillings finished 7th overall in last year’s World Cup standings, and a 4th place in Chapelco is a great start in her bid to top the standings in the 2008/09 season.

The result in Argentina confirms Gillings as one of the best riders in the world in Snowboardcross, and proves that she is a genuine medal prospect for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada in February 2010, which is her ultimate goal.

Ben Kilner of the British Snowboard Team started his season in amazing form, taking 15th place in the half pipe World Cup in Cardrona, New Zealand on Sunday 7th September.

The competition was the first LG Snowboard FIS World Cup of the 2008/09 season and attracted a world class field with 53 men from 20 nations competing in the newly designed 150m long half-pipe.

During the qualification rounds, under the winter New Zealand sun, Ben produced his highest scoring run to date of 38.9, out of a possible 50, landing a perfect front side 900 on his first run, and beating that in his second run with a flawlessly executed front side 1080.

Unfortunately the weather for the finals was not so perfect and took place on an overcast and windy day. Ben scored a 28.3 after fractionally over-rotating on his front side 900, and ultimately took 15th position. This result means that Ben has successfully completed the first of the qualifying criteria for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and shows the potential promise of more successes for Ben in the coming season.

This round of the World Cup was ultimately won by Japanese rider Kohhei Kudoh, followed by his compatriot Ryoh Aono with Canadian Crispin Liscomb taking third, all three of whom are aiming for the World Cup title this season.

Ben’s coach, Leo Addington, stated how proud he was of Ben’s performance, adding that this was ‘a wonderful way to kick off the world cup tour of 2008 – 09’. Mark Simmers, CEO of Snowsport GB said ‘This is one of the best performances by a British Snowboarder in a World Cup that we’ve ever seen. It really proves that Ben Kilner truly has world class potential. ‘
Results

1 Kohhei Kudoh (Japan)
2 Ryoh Aono (Japan)
3 Crispin Liscomb (Canada)

Three other members of the British Snowboard Team were in action at the New Zealand World Cup this weekend, Dom Harrington finishing in 36th with Sam Cullum close behind in 39th. In the Women’s World Cup Lesley McKenna took 26th.

Next week sees another member of British Snowboard Team in action as Zoё Gillings take part in the first LG Snowboard Cross World Cup in Chapelco, Argentina in the Patagonian Andes on 12 & 13 September 2008. Zoё will be aiming for a strong result after taking 5th place in the South American Cup competition held at the same resort last week.

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The British Snowboard Team would like to thank the following for their invaluable support: Sponsors: Land Rover www.landrover.com, Halliwells - www.halliwells.co.uk, FOGG - www.fogginsure.co.uk, BASI www.basi.org.uk Chill Factore – www.chillfactore.com , Funding organisations: UK Sport – www.uksport.gov.uk, TASS – www.tass.gov.uk, Sport Scotland – www.sportscotland.org.uk, BOA - www.boa.org.uk Sports Aid – www.sportsaid.org.uk

Right in time for the Beijing Olympic Summer Games, VANOC, the organizer of the next Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver (CAN) in 2010, released its detailed competition schedules which were approved by the IOC Executive Board. The tickets to 2010 Games will go on sale on 3rd October 2008.

With nine competition venues, 12 stadiums, seven sports, 15 disciplines and 86 medal events, producing the hourly competition schedules was a highly complex endeavor. Contingency plans for adverse weather conditions, event sequencing (to allow recovery time for athletes in more than one event), venue operational considerations and complex broadcast logistics (including balancing live global coverage of simultaneous events at different venues) all had to be built into the schedules.

The Opening Ceremony will be held on 12th February 2010 while the final sport event will be the men’s gold medal hockey game on 28th February. For detailed schedules of each of the FIS disciplines which is a total of 40 medal events, please see

Zoe Gillings, Britain’s number one Snowboardcross athlete continued her seasons storming success today, Friday 22nd February, when she finished in an excellent 2nd place at the FIS World Cup Snowboardcross competition in Japan.

Following her 4th place result at last weekends World Cup event in Korea, Zoe firmly had her sights set on a podium finish in her next World Cup competition. Today in Japan, Zoe made that happen when she successfully knocked out a multiple of World Class riders to take silver, moving her into 4th place in the World Cup Rankings.

Charging her way through to the finals despite the changing snow conditions, Zoe demonstrated her strength and ability, as she headed into the final heat against Lindsey Jacobellis (USA), Maelle Ricker (CAN) and Mellie Francon (SUI). From the start of the final, Zoe had a disadvantage due to her allocated lane but stayed strong and showed her experience by passing Mellie Francon in the first burm. Zoe subsequently passed Lindsey Jacobellis securing a well fought out and deserved 2nd place. Zoe who was all smiles after the race commented, “Woohoo” I’m stoked, its amazing to be back on the podium, and I’m really please I was able to pass two girls and catch up a little bit to Maelle, id really like to take gold next time”
Results
1st – Maelle Ricker (CAN)
2nd – Zoe Gillings, (GBR)
3rd – Mellie Francon (SUI)
4th – Lindsey Jacobellis (USA)

British World Cup Snowboardcross team member, James Foster also competed in Japan and finished in a respectable 44th place out of 60 competitors. Zoe Gillings will next be heading out to Lake Placid, USA on the 1st March to compete in the seventh FIS World Cup event of the season.

Zoe Gillings, Britain’s number one Snowboardcross athlete produced her best result of the season today, Friday 15th February, when she finished in 4th place at the FIS World Cup Snowboardcross competition in Sungwoo, Korea.

Zoe qualified into the finals in ninth position, and won her first heat convincingly leaving World Number one, Lyndsay Jacobellis trailing behind. The line up in the second heat was particularly tough as it included three of the Worlds top racers, each with World Cup victories under their belts. An extremely focused Zoe didn’t let this faze her and produced yet another great result finishing second and securing her place in the final.

In the final it was a head-to-head dual down the technical and demanding course with each rider battling hard for position. Unfortunately being placed in the slowest of the narrow lanes, Zoe was unable to overtake and finished in 4th place, narrowly missing out on a podium position. This is Zoe’s best result in three and a half years and she has now competed in two finals in the past four weeks. Zoe commented after the race, “Its great to be back reaching the finals again, a World cup win is firmly in my sights.”
Results
1st – Maelle Ricker (CAN)
2nd – Lindsey Jacobellis (USA)
3rd – Mellie Francon (SUI)
4th – Zoe Gillings, (UK)

British World Cup Snowboardcross team member, James Foster also competed in Korea and finished in a respectable 47th place out of 80 competitors. Both Zoe and James will be heading to Japan from the 21st – 22nd February to compete in the sixth FIS World Cup event of the season.