Island snowboarder Zoe Gillings produced her best performance of the season on Sunday, finishing sixth in the latest leg of the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Snowboard Cross tour in Austria.

She even finished ahead of world number one, Canadian Maelle Ricker, a confidence booster ahead of next month’s Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver where Zoe is seen as one of Great Britain’s best hopes for a medal.

Speaking after the race, she said: ‘I’m really happy with today’s result and especially with qualifying in fourth position. I’m really happy with my starts today as I have been practising these over the summer and I also beat the World No 1 who is one of the favourites for gold in Vancouver in February, so overall I’m really happy with the result.’