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All out for the podium

 

All out for the podium

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AOC
All out for the podium

Pull out the big guns.

Pull out the big guns.

That will be the Australia team mantra tomorrow when the women’s aerial skiing final gets underway on Cypress Mountain.

Having made it through to the final with a mix of double somersaults, the leading duo of Lydia Lassila and Jacqui Cooper will step up, literally and figuratively, to high degree of difficulty triple somersaults.

Cooper plans to do her regulation big event bracket – a double twisting and a triple twisting triple somersault – while Lassila will also do triples, one of them likely to be the new jump in her armory.

The reigning World Cup champion introduced it in Deer Valley in January, on the way to a world record points score.

Although it is also a triple twisting somersault, it rates higher in degree of difficulty because it includes two twists in one of the somersaults.

With Xu Mengtao of China also performing the same jump, Lassila may have to land it for the second time in competition to hold her own.

The third Australian in the final, Liz Gardner, is in close to the best form of her life.

After recovering from a knee injury, Gardner has not had the time to perfect the triple somersaults she was working on, so has reverted to a pair of triple twisting doubles.

Though they are lower degree of difficulty than the top end of the triple somersaults, they can score highly if executed very well.

By way of example, Chinese world champion Li Nina has won the past three world championships using them

The Australians will have to be at their best to make the podium.

The Chinese record this season speaks for itself, as does Li’s record over the years. The 19-year-old Xu Mengtao is a star in the making and team-mates Guo Xinxin and Cheng Shuang have both won on World Cup.

But there are other threats as well, in particular Belarussia’s 2002 World Cup champion Alla Tsuper, who appears to be back to her best after qualifying in top position.

Barry White
AOC-Cypress


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