British Snowboarders Rule

Lesley McKenna put some of the disappointment of failing to take Olympic gold behind her when she won the women's snowboarding yesterday in the Big Air event, climax to ChamJam's five days of festival in the French Alps.

Better still it was a British one-two, with the leader of the new generation, the Bristol 21-year-old Jenny Jones, in second place.

In perfect conditions the 3,000 crowd were treated to a spectacular competition essentially involving jumping off one steep hill and landing on another. Points are awarded on height, landing and those tricks performed in mid-air when any sane individual would be concentrating on self-preservation.

McKenna's medal hopes in Salt Lake City last month were perhaps a little over-hyped and after one disappointing run she finished well down in the half-pipe event. "I wanted to come here and have some fun after the Olympics," she said yesterday.

"Events like these have already made a big impact on the Olympics as far as boarding is concerned. I'm sure it can change skiing in some ways too.

"This is really a smaller version of the 'X Games' [which include the likes of extreme snowboarding, free skiing, ice climbing and snocross] which are held, winter and summer, in America.

"It attracts mostly amateurs. But more professionals seem to be coming now."

The extrovert mood of the festival can be gauged from the way Jones could be seen chatting to a senior rival at the start-line yesterday.

"The Big Air is just the best," she said. "If you do well you're given a few runs and a real chance to show what you can do. You can get up to a lot of things up there."

Looking for work was one of the things Johnno Verity, a 25-year-old from Chippenham, was getting up to. Verity, one of Britain's best-known boarders here, is sponsored by the digital Extreme Sporting Channel.

Verity, though, was also busy doing photoshoots and seemed more interested in being a flying male model than a flying boarder. "To be honest," he shrugged, "winning the Big Air is not that important to me. I'd rather be on the front cover of an American magazine."

The Big Air, though, can damage your looks. Everyone was reminded of the inherent danger in the competition when one entrant had to be airlifted off after an awkward fall.

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