Zoe Gillings, put in two excellent performances in Gressoney, Italy, this weekend at the Italian SBX Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS) Snowboard cross races clinching two back to back victories on consecutive days. This result is all the more impressive as Zoe has had a troubled season with regard to finances and she is still recovering from an injury sustained at the Olympics back in February which has culminated in absolutely minimal on snow training time in the last 12 months.

Zoe made an impressive start to Saturdays competition qualifying in 1^st place, over half a second in front of her closest rival.  Zoe then went on to dominate the heats putting in some strong technical racing and beating her opponents convincingly to take gold.  Zoe then went into Sundays competition full of confidence from the previous day.  She again put down the fastest qualification time but faced stiffer competition in the heats being passed into second place at the first corner of the final heat.  Zoe quickly fought back passing back into 1^st place where she remained for the rest of the race.  The FIS competition is a lower level of competition to world cup but saw 28 athletes on day one and 19 athletes on day two competing from nations across Europe.

Zoe commented after the race, “It’s about 3 weeks until the next World Cup and I came here to get some much needed training in, I didn’t expect to win as Its been a really tough season but everything just fell into place and I won both competitions. I’m absolutely over the moon.”

Zoes British sport funding runs out at the end of March, and she comments  “It’s really disappointing that my funding is being ended, especially when my results at the Olympics and World Championships easily meet the criteria set by the government for World Class funding. I’ve been told all my life that if I reach the top level in my sport I would receive funding but now that I have, the funding still isn’t there due to the politics at the top level which I simply cannot control.  What motivation to succeed does this provide to young British athletes?”

Zoe finished, “It’s taken a while but I’ve realised I can’t rely on anyone else,  I’m now doing this myself with the close and overwhelming support of my three principle sponsors BMW, IOM Sport Aid and Pokerstars, I am working very hard on setting up in business and have already launched my first, an e-commerce based electronics website – www.zgelectronics.com. The next business in a totally different field will be launched in the Isle of Man in the second week in May  followed by another business in the UK 4 weeks later. It’s all go but I’m loving the challenge”

For more information visit www.zoegillings.com