Tuesday saw the Protest World Rookie Fest slopestyle competition go off in Livigno, Italy.  The 3 star Swatch TTR World Championship event is a major competition for young shred talent to show off their skills, and the UK had Becky Menday, Nathalie Silkstone and Ayla Thidling representing.

The competition was held over two days with 128 competitors from all over the World showcasing their best tricks on a course consisting of three 13 to 18m kickers (jumps).

All three girls are part of the Junior GB Freestyle team and made it through to the finals and had to compete against 28 other finalists. The event was split into two age categories with the Groms for the under 14 and the rookies for the under 17. Each girl had three judged runs with the highest scored run counting for their final score.

Becky’s best run scored 90points and this put her into 4th place in the Groms category only one point of a podium position. Becky said ” I am so pleased with this result as I actually scored more than the 3rd place in the older rookie category”

This result is made even more remarkable when you consider that Becky only had two days to prepare for the event on the mountain; and due to lack of funding has not been able to train on the mountain since last summer.

Her fellow GBR girls where also within the top ten places, Nathalie Silkstone age 15 placed 7th in the Rookies and Ayla Thidling age 11 placed 8th in the groms. Great results for the girls in the GB team.

Becky said ” The whole event was great fun, I really enjoyed riding with my friends from all over Europe”.

The start of Feburary will see Becky competing in the second leg of the World Rookie Fest in Avoriaz in France and at the end of February Becky has been confirmed as 1 of only 10 junior girls to compete in the prestigious Burton European Open in Laax in Switzerland.

GBR Girls from left to right  Nathalie Silkstone, Becky Menday, Ayla Thidling. Pic: Keith Silkstone