By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
CURLEWIS snowboarder Mollie Fernandez has snared an unexpected top-10 finish in her first NorAm Cup event at Canada’s Mont Tremblant.
The 16-year-old was up against seasoned Olympic and World Cup snowboarders in the helter-skelter boarder cross event earlier this month.
Mollie is training in North America as she prepares for the 2015 Junior World Championships in China next month.
She has been based in Colorado since early December, training with Transition Snowboarding as part of her goal to compete at the youth Olympic winter games in February 2016 in Lillehammer, Norway.
Boarder cross pits four competitors at a time on a short track filled with rolls, turns, jumps and banks.
The North American Cup is an International Ski Federation tour ranked just below the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Mollie’s mother, Jodie, said the event was “90 seconds of pure adrenalin”.
“It’s hard competing against such a strong field but it’s good experience for Mollie.”
Jodie said her daughter was enjoying being away from home and trying to keep up with her year 11 studies, including two VCE subjects, at Geelong College by correspondence.
Mollie qualified for the Junior World Championships with overall fourth in FIS Boarder Cross events at Mt Hotham last year.
Mollie has held an individual scholarship at Barwon Sports Academy for the past two years and counts Rip Curl as a sponsor.
Jodie said Mollie hoped to finish in the top 10 at the junior world championships so she could qualify for the youth Olympics.
She will again compete in an Australia and New Zealand Continental Cup at Mount Hotham when she returns to Australia mid-year.
