Swimmer-turned-snowboarder Azquiya Usuph is an unlikely pioneer for winter sports in sun-kissed Sri Lanka, but following in the traditions of plucky triers such as Jamaica’s bobsledders and British ski jumper Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards, snowboarder has overcome her nerves and a glaring lack of experience to blaze a trail at the Asian Winter Games. “I actually learnt to snowboard really fast, in a span of 14 days, which was kind of surprising,” said Usuph, who has no plans to take up the sport seriously. Usuph also spent time at a training camp in Slovenia and regularly surfs to improve her balance and turns. She has won Gold in 2015 at the “Dream Program” and followed it up with another 1st place finish in 2016 where a record number of 44 countries took part in the program. She is a student at the British School in Colombo. Courtesy of mg.co.za