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World of Sport

19th Jan 2015

San Diego’s favourite Irishman Seamus O’Connor makes World Championship final

The teenager is in superb Slope-style form

Patrick McCarry

Don’t put away your Stephanie Roche/Conor McGregor tricolour yet

Team Ireland snowboarder Seamus O’Connor looks like he is successfully building on his first ever trip to the Winter Olympics, in 2014.

O’Connor produced the best slope-style performance of his career to date and, in doing so, qualified for the final of the Snowboard Slope-style World Championship in Kreischberg. Indeed, the 17-year-old recorded the second highest score (90.33) of a world-class field.

The teenager was born in San Diego, USA, and spent much of his formative years in England. He has grandparents hailing from Dublin and Drogheda, however, and was selected to represented Ireland at Sochi 2014, where he carried the Irish flag and performed admirably.

Seamus O'Connor 11/2/2014

Slope-style is a form of competition that comes from snowboarding and free-skiing, and involves competitors negotiating a course peppered with obstacles of varying difficulty. O’Connor will compete in the final, and aim for a podium finish, on Wednesday.