The aerial skiing World Cup season has commenced with a double event in Ruka, Finland, with Laura Peel narrowly missing out on the podium in fourth place. Danielle Scott would place fifth in the second event of the season.
Laura Peel the 2021 World and World Cup Champion from Canberra was the only female athlete to jump triple back somersaults in finals and had the highest scoring jump of the day, scoring 97.38 points with her full-tuck-full, double twisting triple back somersault to advance to the top-six medal round in first place.
In the medal round, Peel was performing the difficult full-full-full triple twisting triple back somersault jump, but unfortunately had trouble on landing to score 77.70 points to just fall short of the podium.
While disappointed to miss the podium, Peel showed her class as the only triple jumper in a positive sign for the upcoming season.
Two-time Olympian and multiple World Championship medallist Danielle Scott qualified strongly in second place, and in finals just missed out on the medal round by less than two points, after scoring 79.38 points with her double full-full, triple twisting double back somersault.
Fanyu Kong from China took the win with a score of 89.53 points, with a tie for second place with Zhanbota Aldabergenova of Kazakhstan and Qi Shao of China both scoring 80.04 points.
Abbey Willcox made a strong return to competition after missing last season due to injury, just missing the 12-woman final in 14th place, with Gabi Ash in 27th and Airleigh Frigo 32nd in her World Cup debut.
Also making his World Cup debut in the men’s event was Wesley Naylor, who finished in 28th place.
Fifth for Scott at 2nd Ruka World Cup
Danielle Scott has continued her strong start to the 2021-2022 World Cup season, finishing in equal fifth place overnight in Ruka, Finland.
Improving on her eighth place finish in the first day of competition yesterday, Scott performed her double full-full double twisting double back somersault, scoring 89.18 points in the one jump competition.
The 31-year-old relocated to Queensland in order to train at the brand new Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre water jump facility at Brisbane’s Sleeman Sports Centre and will look to increase her degree of difficulty in her jumps as the season progresses.
“It’s been a pretty good start to the season, just slowly building” said the double World Championship medallist.
“It’s crazy, we are finally in the fourth year of the Olympic quad, it feels like a long time coming, just with COVID and everything being so different, but I feel ready, and we have to keep building, it’s only December.”
2021 World Cup and World Champion Laura again jumped the highest degree of difficulty in the women’s field, with her full-full-full triples twisting triple back somersault scoring 76.84 points after having trouble with her landing, giving her a final ranking of 13th.
“I am getting up there with degree of difficulty, so I am putting in the work for what’s ahead in the season” said the two-time winter Olympian from Canberra.
China took the top two places on the podium, with Mengtao Xu in first place with a score of 99.49 points, with her teammate Fanyu Kong in second with a score of 95.52. Rounding out the podium was Hanna Huskova of Belarus in third place with a score of 94.60.
Also competing for Australia in the women’s event were Gabi Ash in 26th place, Abbey Willcox in 31st and Airleigh Frigo in 37th. In the men’s event, Wesley Naylor finished in 43rd place.
Australia also competed in the mixed aerials team event in Ruka, with the team of Scott, Peel and Naylor finishing in seventh place out of ten nations. The mixed aerials team competition will make its debut at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
The aerial skiing athletes will remain in Ruka for one more week, with more World Cup events scheduled to take place in the Finish resort next weekend.