Thomas making the grade at boardercross

Thomas White competes for Great Britain at boardercross

Shaw-born Thomas White is continuing to make a significant impact in the exciting winter sport of boardercross.

White (24) recently gave up his job as a snowboard instructor at Trafford Park’s Chill Factore to try out boardercross as a career after Great Britain coaches discovered he had a lot of potential in the sport.

He now trains and competes as part of the Great Britain boardercross squad.

White has been training full-time in Hintertux, Austria, as part of the GB squad since last October, and has had the opportunity to train alongside one of the current Winter Olympians - Zoe Gillings.

He took part in his first international boardercross tournament in the Czech Republic and finished sixth overall out of 32 competitors.

White – the brother of Oldham’s Olympic gold-medal winning hockey star Nicola – was in action across two days of competition which featured much more experienced rivals from all over Europe.

Buoyed by his debut performance, White next heads across to Gargellen in Austria in March for another international tournament.

The current boardercross season finishes at Easter, after which White hopes to have accumulated enough ranking points to earn a place on the world level racing circuit for the 2018/19 season.