Lloyd Wallace wins GB’s first gold medal at the Europa Cup

SportsAid’s athlete of the month Lloyd Wallace, 20 from Shaftesbury in Wiltshire, has added to his recent success in Belarus by winning Britain’s first gold medal in the history of aerial skiing’s Europa Cup tour.

Finishing in first place on Sunday in Airolo, Switzerland, Lloyd topped the podium ahead of Russian’s Maxim Burov and Harrison Smith from the USA.

It was also a personal best for the SportsAid athlete, who is supported by the SSE Next Generation programme, scoring 96.58 for full double-full and 93.41 for double-full full. Both are triple twisting double somersaults which he only learnt this season after what he calls “a breakthrough” in his performance.

Competing against a strong field with World Cup jumpers from Switzerland, Russia, Belarus and USA, Lloyd said, "I made a small mistake yesterday and was ninth but today I knew I had it in me. Everything went perfectly. It's the best feeling in the world."

Next week Lloyd has two more Europa Cup competitions followed by the Junior World Championships in Valmalenco, Italy.

Read SportsAid's interview with Lloyd here