Skiing brothers take double Gold

Rob and James Machon, aged 19 and 21 from Sheffield, both competed in the Dare2b Halfpipe event at the Freeski Championships (The Brits), with James claiming the title for the fourth year in a row, whilst Rob secured the University Slopestyle title at Castleford Snow Zone.

James commented: "This was mine and Rob's sixth year at The Brits and for me it is a battle of fitness, training and competing in all disciplines for six days in a row, which is hard work, but it was great to end the week on a good note. Now Rob and I are back at University, all the training and hard work starts again in the gym before the next period of training during the summer. This season has been a challenge as we are also studying - Rob is studying Sport Coaching whilst I'm studying Sports Performance. We've had to take over a month off during the middle of the season to sit our January exams, but we have had great support."

Rob added: "We both started skiing with our parents on family holidays and when I turned 11 we started racing training at Sheffield Ski Village. We then competed in racing for a year and started doing freestyle as well, which we found that we prefer. We then began competing which was something we really wanted to do as we're both really competitive. Since joining the England Team it's become our favourite sport and we're hoping to aim for the Winter Olympics in 2014."