Jacqui Cooper and Bree Munro have made it into the 12-woman final of the aerial skiing World Cup in Cypress Mountain, Canada.

But World Cup leader Lydia Lassila has missed out, finishing in 17th place after missing the landing on her second qualifying jump.

Competing on the Vancouver Olympic course high above the 2010 Games host city, Cooper led the first round of qualifying, landing her triple twisting triple somersault for a score of 103.47 points.

Chinese jumper Xinxin Guo was in second place on 102.79 points, while Torino 2006 Olympic champion Evelyn Leu was third on 102.60 points.

Cooper’s AIS team-mate Lassila reverted to a triple twisting double somersault on her opening jump, and seemed somewhat unlucky to receive only 91.82 points for tenth place.

In the second round of qualifying jumps, Cooper failed to land her double twisting triple somersault cleanly, dropping to seventh place overall on 176.43 points.

Lassila missed a place in the final altogether, crashing on the landing of her second triple twisting double somersault to drop back to 17th place overall on 153.33 points.

Munro joined Cooper in the final 12 successfully putting down a double twisting double for 174.05 points overall and eighth place.

The other two Australians in the field, Liz Gardner and Denita Mudge, finished in 19th place and 26th respectively.

Guo topped the final qualifying list on 200.81 points, with Chinese team-mates also filling the next three positions. The two round final of the event will be held tomorrow morning Australian time, with points from qualifying not counting towards the overall result.

Earlier in the day, Jenny Owens had qualified in 13th position in the ski cross World Cup elimination round at the same Vancouver venue, with fellow New South Wales skier Scott Kneller squeezing into the 32-man head-to-head men’s final group in 31st position.

Further north in Whistler, Emma Lincoln-Smith finished in 11th place in the skeleton World Cup on the 2010 Olympic track. Lincoln-Smith posted one minute 52.21 seconds for her two runs, 2.35 seconds slower than race winner Marion Trott of Germany.

Lincoln-Smith’s AIS team-mate Michelle Steele slid to the 18th fastest time in the first run, but produced the 12th fastest trip in the second run. That was only enough to lift her to 17th overall, however, 3.49 seconds behind the gold medallist. The silver medal went to Amy Williams of Great Britain, while Germany’s Anja Huber took the bronze.

Lincoln-Smith is in 11th place on 832 points, while Steele is in 18th position on 693 points. Another skeleton World Cup will be held in Salt Lake City next weekend.

And finally, a potential Australian figure skating star made her senior debut in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic test event tonight, attracting high praise from one of the sport’s most respected champions.

Fifteen-year-old Campbelltown school girl Cheltzie Lee finished in 15th place in the short program of the Four Continents competition at the Pacific Coliseum, registering an impressive personal best score of 43.96, despite two minor mistakes.

At the conclusion of the first stage of the event, four-time World Champion Kurt Browning, sought out the Sydney teenager to tell her “how magnificent” he thought her performance was.

The Canadian legend told Lee and coach Kylie Fennell: ”I have been looking for you to tell you that you were wonderful and I really loved your performance”.

Barry White
OWI