Gillings wins German Championship

Gillings has set her sights on a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Zoe Gillings demolished a world-class field to win the German National Snowboarding Championships on Tuesday.

The British number one and world number six dominated the event from start to finish, once again proving she is a genuine contender for an Olympic medal.

"Winning feels great. It all went to plan today and I'm looking forward to repeating the performance in Bad Gastein [Austria]," said the Manx star.

Gillings, 23, now travels to Austria for the next World Cup on 11 January.

Despite low visibility and a challenging course she qualified three-and-a-half seconds faster than any other female athlete.

In the quarter-final she had an excellent start, and led the field all the way down the course winning with a comfortable margin.

The semi-final proved to be more difficult, a poor start meant Gillings lost ground but some excellent lines at the top of the course meant she led going into the first jump and kept in going to the finish line.

In the final, the Manx snowboarder used all of her experience to storm straight into the lead after a fantastic start.

Gillings left the field trailing as she was the only athlete to negotiate the first jump without slowing her speed, this placed her in a commanding position for the rest of the course where she quickly wrapped up the victory.

She is now considered one of Britain's best chances of a medal at the winter 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.