If Anna Vincenti’s World Cup debut is anything to go by she’s in for a fine Olympic season – but she is refusing to get carried away in a sport reliant on gravity-defying tricks and stunts.
The 18-year-old was one of a handful of Brits to travel to New Zealand for the Winter Games and the opening freestyle ski and snowboard World Cup of the season back in August.
And, despite having never competed on the World Cup stage before, Vincenti appeared every bit a veteran as she qualified for the freestyle ski slopestyle final in eighth.
Vincenti’s elation was met with precaution though as a fall in practice prevented her from taking part in the final, won by Norwegian Tiril Sjaastad Christiansen.
Still her performance in New Zealand was a giant leap towards qualification for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi with slopestyle a new addition to the Games programme.
Vincenti effectively just needs to repeat her efforts with three World Cups taking place before the cut off date in January and she is looking no further than that.
“I wasn’t expecting to get to the final but I did so I was pretty stoked. I’ve got a lot to train on but basically I’m pretty happy with it and hopefully I can go up from here,” she said.
“I still need to work hard on hitting the big jumps backwards and I also have a couple of invert tricks that I want to learn along with just trying to get stronger physically.
“Every competition that comes I have to focus wholly on that one competition. I can’t think about anything else.”
© Sportsbeat 2013