SOARAWAY snowboard success story Thomas White is flying high in the sport during his first year with the GB Snowboard Cross squad.

Thomas, the brother of Oldham's Olympic gold medalist hockey player Nicola White, came seventh in the Czech National Championships last weekend, competing against world level competitors.

In his first ever race in Czech in February he finished sixth.

He is the second highest ranking member in the squad behind a rider who has been in the programme for number of years and has a lot of competitive experience.

The former Chill Factore snowboard instructor and park shaper has been training with the team in Austria since October and still has several competitions left to compete in before the season finishes at Easter.

He said: "It's been an awesome first year training with the best of GB out in Austria.

"Racing is very different from freestyle snowboarding so I had to learn a whole new way of riding to be able to race at this level.

"I am learning and improving with each competition and look to make a bigger impact next season on the racing circuit.

"I think I have what it takes to become world class and the coaches have been extremely pleased with my progress.

"I came out to Austria with basic equipment not sure of how it would go. With better equipment my timings would improve and I could compete with the best so my next challenge is to get enough funding to be able to come out again next year properly equipped to compete on the world stage.

"It's been a lot of hard work but I've love every minute of it."