Serwa golden on Olympic course

Photo: Contributed - Serwa.com

Kelowna's Kelsey Serwa won Tuesday's World Cup ski cross in Sochi, Russia

Kelowna's Kelsey Serwa has a leg up on the competition heading into next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Serwa won gold in Tuesday's women's ski cross on the same course competitors will use in the 2014 Olympics.

The win was the eighth World Cup Ski Cross win of Serwa's career.

She finished second last month in Magave, France after posting a victory in December in Innichen.

Serwa came into the race in Sochi third in World Cup points behind Fanny Smith of Switzerland and Ophelie David of France.

Smith was third in Tuesday's race while David finished fifth.

Weather was the big story in Sochi before Tuesday's race went ahead.

After the course was plagued with a lack of snow a large dump of the white stuff forced postponement of Monday's qualification runs.

The next event on the World Cup circuit is Feb. 24 at Harrachov, Czech Republic.