Torah Bright has won back to back bronze medals on the Torino 2006 Olympic venue of Bardonecchia, after securing an Olympic qualifying result with the first podium.
Torah Bright has won back to back bronze medals on the Torino 2006 Olympic venue of Bardonecchia, after securing an Olympic qualifying result with the first podium.
Bright’s second bronze medal in two days was not as easy as the first, the 18-year-old snowboarder experiencing some anxious moments before qualifying fifth for the six-woman final.
In the opening run of the final she earned 38.6 points, going into third place behind US riders Kelly Clark on 42.3 points and Gretchen Bleiler (pr. Blay-ler) on 42.2.
When the three riders below her failed to impress the judges in their second runs, Bright’s opening score proved to be enough to secure the podium place – a fortuitous outcome given she fell in the opening hit of her second effort.
Clark held on to win the gold from team-mate Bleiler.
“I actually rode a lot better today,” Bright said. “I was a lot happier with my form.”
“There was a little bit of a worry in the qualification rounds with the judging but they seemed to have sorted it out towards the end, so that was good, but I just squeezed in to finals.”
“I was a bit frustrated because with my riding I had earned a spot in the finals but with a judged sport anything can happen.”
“The first run in the final I just wanted to get a run down and so I did and it was good and then the second run I was ready . . .. I was going to go bigger, but the pipe, after being ridden in all day, was starting to get a little under vert (vertical) and on my first hit I just went a little bigger than I had before and I didn’t compensate for that so I came off on the deck a little and that was it. But I had a lot of fun riding today.”
“Even though you know you have a result after the first run you always try to better your score or just prove to yourself that you can go bigger and better and that was my goal in the second run but it didn’t quite work out.”
“Now it’s time to practice up on the tricks I haven’t pulled out in competition yet and perfect them. It’s more rotation in the run– a straight cab seven a girl doesn’t do and alleyoop rodeo girls haven’t done either. So it’s a matter of getting comfortable with them and putting them in the run and making sure that the amplitude is up there with the rest of my run.”
“And if I only took one thing out of these two competitions it has been perfect in that I have got out of my bad habit of leaving early on my frontside spin and if that was the only thing I took out of it I would be stoked.”
In a seven-event World Cup career, Bright has now been on the podium six times, a remarkable record. She currently sits in equal fifth place on the 2004/05 World Cup standings.
Adding to the impressive performances of the past two days, Bright’s team-mate Andrew Burton placed third in his qualifying heat, just adrift of reigning World Champion Antti Autti of Finland and Salt Lake 2002 gold medallist Ross Powers of the United States, exalted company indeed.
He eventually finished in tenth place in the final. Burton, 30, is in 12th place on the men’s points table.
Bleiler leads the women’s title race, and Risto Mattila of Finland heads the men’s standings.
Bright’s second bronze medal in two days was not as easy as the first, the 18-year-old snowboarder experiencing some anxious moments before qualifying fifth for the six-woman final.
In the opening run of the final she earned 38.6 points, going into third place behind US riders Kelly Clark on 42.3 points and Gretchen Bleiler (pr. Blay-ler) on 42.2.
When the three riders below her failed to impress the judges in their second runs, Bright’s opening score proved to be enough to secure the podium place – a fortuitous outcome given she fell in the opening hit of her second effort.
Clark held on to win the gold from team-mate Bleiler.
“I actually rode a lot better today,” Bright said. “I was a lot happier with my form.”
“There was a little bit of a worry in the qualification rounds with the judging but they seemed to have sorted it out towards the end, so that was good, but I just squeezed in to finals.”
“I was a bit frustrated because with my riding I had earned a spot in the finals but with a judged sport anything can happen.”
“The first run in the final I just wanted to get a run down and so I did and it was good and then the second run I was ready . . .. I was going to go bigger, but the pipe, after being ridden in all day, was starting to get a little under vert (vertical) and on my first hit I just went a little bigger than I had before and I didn’t compensate for that so I came off on the deck a little and that was it. But I had a lot of fun riding today.”
“Even though you know you have a result after the first run you always try to better your score or just prove to yourself that you can go bigger and better and that was my goal in the second run but it didn’t quite work out.”
“Now it’s time to practice up on the tricks I haven’t pulled out in competition yet and perfect them. It’s more rotation in the run– a straight cab seven a girl doesn’t do and alleyoop rodeo girls haven’t done either. So it’s a matter of getting comfortable with them and putting them in the run and making sure that the amplitude is up there with the rest of my run.”
“And if I only took one thing out of these two competitions it has been perfect in that I have got out of my bad habit of leaving early on my frontside spin and if that was the only thing I took out of it I would be stoked.”
In a seven-event World Cup career, Bright has now been on the podium six times, a remarkable record. She currently sits in equal fifth place on the 2004/05 World Cup standings.
Adding to the impressive performances of the past two days, Bright’s team-mate Andrew Burton placed third in his qualifying heat, just adrift of reigning World Champion Antti Autti of Finland and Salt Lake 2002 gold medallist Ross Powers of the United States, exalted company indeed.
He eventually finished in tenth place in the final. Burton, 30, is in 12th place on the men’s points table.
Bleiler leads the women’s title race, and Risto Mattila of Finland heads the men’s standings.
