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.
It is the third time in three visits to the Italian resort she has been on the podium, the first of them bringing her maiden win at the end of last season.
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.”
“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.”
“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.”
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.
Bright’s first day’s effort had been an impressive response to her falls in both runs of the World Snowboard Championships in Whistler in mid-January. She qualified in third place, then clinched the fifth podium placing of her career with a 39.8 points first run in the final, the top 20 per cent result delivering her the Olympic qualifier.
US rider Gretchen Bleiler took the gold medal with 42.4 points, with Mero Narita of Japan claiming the silver with 41.4 points.
“Today was first time I have felt nervous for a while,” Bright said after the first day.
“I think it was just that things didn’t go as planned at the World Championships and I didn’t get a qualifying spot for the Olympics then, so I was thinking, ‘OK I can do it now’. “
“Things play through your mind, you do think about it. At the World Championships it was a lack of concentration and bad luck with the pipe not being as it had been in the practice the day before.”
“I think it affected my performance in the first run in the qualifying but the first run in the finals was a good one, though I had a dodgy straight air – I thought I was going to come up on the deck. But I knew I could do it – I had my run and that was it.”
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.
It is the third time in three visits to the Italian resort she has been on the podium, the first of them bringing her maiden win at the end of last season.
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.”
“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.”
“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.”
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.
Bright’s first day’s effort had been an impressive response to her falls in both runs of the World Snowboard Championships in Whistler in mid-January. She qualified in third place, then clinched the fifth podium placing of her career with a 39.8 points first run in the final, the top 20 per cent result delivering her the Olympic qualifier.
US rider Gretchen Bleiler took the gold medal with 42.4 points, with Mero Narita of Japan claiming the silver with 41.4 points.
“Today was first time I have felt nervous for a while,” Bright said after the first day.
“I think it was just that things didn’t go as planned at the World Championships and I didn’t get a qualifying spot for the Olympics then, so I was thinking, ‘OK I can do it now’. “
“Things play through your mind, you do think about it. At the World Championships it was a lack of concentration and bad luck with the pipe not being as it had been in the practice the day before.”
“I think it affected my performance in the first run in the qualifying but the first run in the finals was a good one, though I had a dodgy straight air – I thought I was going to come up on the deck. But I knew I could do it – I had my run and that was it.”
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.
