I have just got back from the X games out in Colorado where I got 7th. This is my story…

The way the format works at the X games is that there are 18 girls invited and all of them do one qualification run with the top 8 girls going straight through to the heats and the remaining 10 do a second run with the top 4 from that run going through.

In my first qualification run I was in 6th after my run but then got knocked down by a few girls to 9th (very annoying place to be!) So I had to go up again for another run and this one went really well so I won that run by about a second and a half.

So I was in 9th for the heats the next day. There was 12 girls in total in 2 heats of 6 with the top 3 from each heat going through to the finals. In my first heat I got a pretty good start out of the gate and was in 2nd then went into 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th back to 3rd around the 2nd to last bend then I took too much of a wide line and got passed on the inside so went over the line in 4th.

So I was now in the small final to decide places 7 – 12. I got out of the gate fast again and was in the lead from the start and stayed there all the way to the end. Switzerland’s Sandra Frei tried to catch me up all the way down but didn’t succeed. Craig said the commentators were talking about the 2 Americans in my heat while we were in the gate and didn’t mention anyone else then when I got in front they were like “And Gillings is in front! Wow she is really far in front!” Where did she come from?!”

So brief summary: first heat not too good but second one brilliant!

With the confidence that has given me I can’t wait for the world cup in Japan next month.

Zoe