Twelve-year-old Katie missed out on a bronze medal by just 1.6 points in the junior girls competition in the invitation-only event at Laax.

She was taking part in the slopestyle and half pipe competitions.
Katie, a pupil at The Grammar School, Hipperholme, is currently ranked third in the UK and now has her sights set firmly on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

She is sponsored by SNO!zone in Castleford and was competing in Switzerland against the world's best snowboarders aged up to 14.

Campbell Orr, co-ordinator of the sponsored riders programme at SNO!Zone, said: "Katie is one of our top young snowboarders and we are thrilled to see her doing so well on the global snowboarding stage.

This is a great start to the year for her and her future certainly looks bright."

Katie, who lives at Hove Edge, is a former pupil at St Joseph's Junior and Infant School, Brighouse. She began skiing at the age of four and snowboarding at six. Her dad Mark is a snowboarding instructor and her cousin Jamie Nicholls, of Queensbury, is a professional snowboarder.