Ed Drake is confident of building upon his steady progression in ski cross this season following his switch from alpine skiing last year.

The 28-year-old competed for Team GB in downhill, giant slalom, super-G and the super combined at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics before making the switch to ski cross in 2013 in a bid to qualify for Sochi.

Kingston's Drake missed out on a place but he insists he can still take positives from his performances last year, which included claiming the 2014 British ski cross title.

His next aim is to challenge in the World Championships in Austria next January and Drake is aiming high.

“It was a bit frustrating to miss out on Sochi, but I only switched to ski cross in January 2013, so to miss the cut off by a couple of tenths shows how I close I was,” he said.

“It was a long shot to begin with but I was pleased with how close I was which bodes well for the future and it fills me with a lot of confidence and driveS me on to do better.

“We have the World Championships at the end of January and that’s where I got my best result last year so I’m looking forward to that.

“I was going well on the two splits before the finish and then made a mistake. This year the goal is to get into that final group and start going head-to-head and then anything can happen.

“As long as I continue with my progression there’s no reason why I can’t be mixing with the best in the world considering my results so far.”