At 2pm today, Euro time, our good mate and super style bandit, Marta "Smarta" Jekot, will be competing in the qualification round of the Slopestyle World Champs, being held in La Molina, Spain. This is a massive boost for SA snowboarding as she could be our first ever finalist at a World Champs in snowboarding.
Our man at the top, Olly, head of Snowboarding SA, sent us the following message from the slopes:
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| That is one large Slopestyle Course! |
Hey Guys,
Today at 2pm is Mawa’s qualification run for the World Snowboard Champs and she’s riding in bib 2 in a field of 28 women. Our Afro-Molina jokes have died down because the weather turned and the temp will be around -16C with winds of up to 65km/h today which isn’t great for Mawa who must face quiet a gnarly slopestyle course as it is.
Win, draw or lose, today’s qualifiers are going to be an exciting day for us. We are waving the only African flag at the comp which is dominated by European and American riders. It’s also a bit nail biting for slopestyle itself because this whole format will also be under review by an Olympic panel to see if it’s worth introducing as a new Olympic discipline. Personally it’s also feels quiet good because we stand here on the shoulders of a really big and passionate effort of many of you guys at home and it’s good to be reminded that passion and hope still flow.
Mawa has shown big heart and composure to roll into this course in Spain because its pretty woes. This event was unexpected and not part of the plan but we’ve also got a great coach in Iztok who gave her a motivational talk last night that nearly had me strapping on a board to show the sceptics that Africa can compete in snow !
Hold thumbs for Mawa and I’ll get back to you once the craziness is over and we know how today went.
Oliver
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| Marta Stylin at practice! |
If you wanna send Marta some love and support, check her website - Marta Jekot
And on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/amasmarties?sk=info
Go SMARTY!!!!!!!
GO MAWA!!!!
ReplyDeleteand that is only the bottom half of the course. The course starts with 2 rail features, a quarterpipe wall ride another rail feature, 3 sets of kickers and finally a rail feature. All of this is set on a black run. The qualifiers were cancelled this afternoon due to high winds and extreme cold (-15 with 45km/h winds), so keep those good thoughts coming for tomorrow... Gearbox
ReplyDeleteMawa you legend!! WHoop WHooP!
ReplyDelete