* Chemmy Alcott secured her second Top 10 of the season in Tarvisio

* Ben Kilner mixes it with the World's best at the US Grand Prix in Idaho.

* SnowsportGB announce new finance director.

The countdown has begun. Holidays six weeks away on the horizon are one of the things that are keeping Chemmy Alcott's energy levels up. A whistle-stop tour of Thailand may be planned with some of her world cup chums, but in the meantime this weekend she will be focussing on cementing her place at the World Cup Finals in Giant Slalom.

Chemmy skied to ninth in the final world cup downhill of the season before the Finals. On what she described later as the toughest course of the season in Tarvisio, Italy she skied 1:53.58, less than one second behind the USA's Julia Mancuso - one of her summer holiday companions. She admitted later that her brief break at home after the world championships helped salve her frustrations and rebuild her resolve and her energy.

After a solid 15th overall in the Super Combined event and delivering the 5th fastest time in the downhill leg, Chemmy had served notice that her form was on the up. She took full advantage of an early start number and enjoyed a brief spell in the leader's enclosure, bowing out to Canada's Emily Brydon who secured the third step on the podium. Olympic Champion Mancuso snatched victory to strengthen her bid for the overall World Cup title. Her main downhill rival, Renate Goetschl finished second.

British Land Alpine Team Head coach, Mark Tilston said, "This is a fantastic result for Chemmy. She needed the break and has been skiing well since she returned to snow. She has made some technical improvements from which she has drawn renewed confidence."

Sadly even with her ninth place, which equalled her 2004 ninth in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Alcott just missed out on qualifying for the Finals. Only two points separated her from qualification.

"That is really tough to take, because twice this season I have been 31st and just fractions out. At the time you don't worry too much about it and look ahead, but now you kind of regret it."

"I was really pleased with my finish though. It makes it a good season now and relieves some of the pressure after the ninth in 2004. In so many ways that had become a millstone because it was a while ago but it is the thing that everything is measured against, and now I have proven I can do it and it is my second top 10 this season and was on the toughest and most dangerous course of the season so I am pleased. There was a 40 minute hold before I went because a girl had been hurt, but I was just so 'in my zone' that I did not lose any focus."

"Being home was good for me because I realised why it is that I have not been able to ski the way I have wanted to. There is just not the strength in my legs I need and a lot of that is down to missing out on all my strength and conditioning training last summer. So now I understand it is really about trying to manage it and keep all I have for race days. All the way recently I feel like I have been fighting it. But now I have given in and understood and I have to manage it."

"I am working now with lots of new ideas for the future, different training. So much is about what I have learned what works for me. For example coming in from skiing and doing an hour and a half on the bike, I can achieve the same with 25 minutes of recovery with some sprints. It is about what works for me."

"I am looking forward now to just getting some big blocks of solid nine week training done in the summer."

Among the focal points for the early summer Chemmy is planning her first triathlon at Eton near Windsor. She has not yet done any swimming training but considers it has to be in her genes, given that her mother Eve was a GBR level swimmer.

Chemmy is now working with new management at home in the UK and isdetermined to put in place all the building blocks for next season so that there is no room for excuses.

The British Snowboard Team continued their recent impressive results when Scottish rider Ben Kilner made Finals in the men's Half Pipe at the US Grand Prix event in Idaho, USA. Ben qualified 6th in a field of 70 made up of top riders including Ross Powers, Danny Kass, and Olympic Gold Winner Shawn White. Out of the 16 riders in the Finals Ben finished 12th beating the X-Games winner Steve Fisher.

This result confirms that Ben has overcome the ankle injury that hampered his performances at the start of this season.

Lesley McKenna and Dan Wakeham both achieved Top 20 results in the recent World Cup Half-Pipe at Calgary. Lesley was 11th in the ladies event and Dan finished 19th in the men's event.

Zoe Gillings continued her climb up the World Cup rankings with an 11th place at the World Cup snowboard cross event at Lake Placid, USA. This result ranks Zoe 10th in the World.

In the men's snowboard cross at Lake Placid, USA James Foster finished 37th out of 60 men. This result moves James to 45th in the World Cup rankings. This race is his best to date and demonstrates the progress the TASS 2012 athlete has made since moving into this discipline from Half-Pipe.

As in other parts of Europe, snow conditions for the European Youth Olympics, Spain, were poor when members of the junior cross country team demonstrated that they are on track with their targets for the season. The mixed relay team of Alex Standen, Sarah Young, Andrew Musgrave, and Fiona Hughes finished in 18th place ahead of other developing cross-country skiing nations. Andrew Musgrave led the way for the whole team in the individual events. His 47th place out of 93 competitors has to be seen in the context of a very short skiing career along with minimal time on snow, in contrast to the top skiing nations competing at the event.

The junior squad's commitment to a strenuous training programme along with enthusiasm and motivation is typified by Alastair Duncan putting in around 600 hours of training in a year. He is currently in Canada preparing for the World Junior Championships in March. Alastair finished third in a regional sprint event in Canmore recently, establishing a good foundation for the championships in Tarvisio. Interestingly Alastair's coach, Anders Lenes, noted that Alastair's speed on the downhill, clocked at 84kmph, is almost equivalent to World Cup standard. As for the other juniors Alastair will need more years of endurance training to compete successfully in distance events at international level.

Following Tarvisio, Alastair is planning to compete in the Canadian Junior Championships in Quebec on 20 March. Alastair commented: "I am really looking forward to March. I have been building up to this all year. This is really only my first race season and I have met my goals and objectives so far. The support of local businesses like Mountain Spirit is just invaluable - this is a highly technical sport requiring technical equipment and waxes.

The BRITS

The organisers of the British Snowboard and Freeski Championships are excited to announce that Quiksilver has joined forces with the current impressive line up at the forthcoming BRITS 10th -- 17th March 2007, Laax, Switzerland, to take the title of the Quiksilver British Big Air Championships and introduce the new head-to-head format.

Spencer Claridge, Director of Soul Sports quoted: -- "We're stoked to get Quiksilver back involved with the British Championships as they, like us, wish to push the limits of freestyle snowboard and skiing to the max and give the UK athletes a springboard onto the World stage. Quiksilver were right behind our decision to implement a new head-to-head format which will demand more from the athletes as they are required to work through four rounds of qualification to reach the final, with a limit on the repetition of like-tricks throughout -- the real test of an athlete's true ability."

The BRITS, now ranked as a 3-star TTR event, offers a mixture of the best of British snowboard and freeski action, alongside cutting edge tunes in Europe's premiere freestyle resort of Laax, Switzerland. To help make it even more affordable and easier to get from your sofa to the slopes, The BRITS have secured some amazing package deals starting at £199pp including accommodation and lift pass, plus exclusive rates on flights and transfers out to the event. To ensure you don't miss out, check out the new BRITS website to book now - www.aimseries.com

The BRITS competition is based on open entry for all abilities. Online registration is now live, so to pre-register to compete go to: www.aimseries.com/0607/brits/registration.htm

SnowsportGB have announced a new appointment to the board of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation. Sarajane (SJ) Hendricks has accepted the position of Finance Director. SJ is a senior accountant with British Airways, SnowportGB's corporate partner.

SJ will be formally proposed for election to the board at the SnowsportGB Annual General Meeting which will be held in London on Sunday 20th May 2007.