Snowboard queen Ledecka fastest in Olympic history bid

Ester Ledecka remained on course for a historic Olympic double today when the Czech crossover star clocked the fastest time in qualifying for the women's snowboard parallel giant slalom. The Czech world champion and hot favourite, who stunned the world of alpine skiing by capturing gold in last week's super-G, recorded an aggregate time of one minutes, 28.90 seconds for her two runs -- more than a second ahead of her nearest rival. Russian Alena Zavarzina, bronze medallist in Sochi four years ago, was second quickest in 1:30.16 with Germany's Selina Joerg qualifying third in 1:30.27. Ledecka is looking to become the first woman to win gold medals in different sports at the same Winter Olympics. The 22-year-old can join Norwegians Thorleif Haug and Johan Groettumsbraten as the only athletes to do a multi-sport double. Haug did the cross country and Nordic combined double at the 1924 Olympics and Grottumsbraten won the same events at the 1928 Games.

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