Australia’s leading aerial skiers Lydia Ierodiaconou and Jacqui Cooper have both been eliminated from the World Championships, but junior members of the team Liz Gardner and Lainie Cole have produced a series of personal best scores to qualify for the final in fourth and eighth place.
Australia’s leading aerial skiers Lydia Ierodiaconou and Jacqui Cooper have both been eliminated from the World Championships, but junior members of the team Liz Gardner and Lainie Cole have produced a series of personal best scores to qualify for the final in fourth and eighth place.
Ierodiaconou, the world number two, failed to land her opening double twisting triple somersault in the qualifying round today, and a strong second round single twisting triple was not enough to get her back into the 12-woman final tomorrow. She ended the day in 16th place.
Cooper went into the qualifying round on one wing, having suffered a partial dislocation of the shoulder when she backslapped in training yesterday.
Hardly able to move her right arm, the 1999 world champion was restricted to double somersaults and finished in 14th place.
But Gardner and Cole stepped up .
Jumping second in the 26-woman field, Gardner attempted a triple twisting somersault that she had never tried in competition before, and not only landed it but collected a strong 93.89 points score in the process.
Cole followed with a personal best score of 91.35 for her double twisting double, and at the end of the first round of jumping the pair filled third and fourth places.
With lower degree of difficulty jumps in the second round they were overtaken by several more experienced jumpers, but ended the day with personal best total points scores.
Leading qualifier was World Champion Nina Li of China on 200.3 points, with Swiss veteran Evelyne Leu in second place on 196.53.
Leu set a new world record points score for a single jump when she scored 108.68 for the double twisting triple jump in the first round.
Gardner will go into tomorrow’s final with a stronger repertoire, adding a second triple twisting double that she needs to be a podium contender.
Olympic Winter Institute Aerial Skiing coach Todd Ossian had mixed feelings after the qualifying event.
“I’m very disappointed for Lyd and Jac, but excited for the Lainie and Liz,” Ossian said.
“You want all your athletes to do well, but realistically, success at the world championships for Lyd and Jac was never part of the overall plan.”
“That’s always been about working towards 2006, but of course it’s hard for an athlete to realize that when they don’t do well at a world championship.”
“But I’m very proud of the progress Lydia has made on triples this year.”
“Last night I didn’t think Jac would even be jumping today, and as it was, the injury certainly hampered her performance. On her full-full, she needed to use her right arm to slow down the rotation, and she just wasn’t able to do it. To finish in 14th place was a great effort given the circumstances.”
“But I’m really pumped about Liz’s performance. Tomorrow she will be competing two triple twisting doubles, and that puts her ahead of where Alisa was going into the Salt Lake Games.”
The women’s aerials final will be held at 3:00am Saturday morning AEDT.
Ierodiaconou, the world number two, failed to land her opening double twisting triple somersault in the qualifying round today, and a strong second round single twisting triple was not enough to get her back into the 12-woman final tomorrow. She ended the day in 16th place.
Cooper went into the qualifying round on one wing, having suffered a partial dislocation of the shoulder when she backslapped in training yesterday.
Hardly able to move her right arm, the 1999 world champion was restricted to double somersaults and finished in 14th place.
But Gardner and Cole stepped up .
Jumping second in the 26-woman field, Gardner attempted a triple twisting somersault that she had never tried in competition before, and not only landed it but collected a strong 93.89 points score in the process.
Cole followed with a personal best score of 91.35 for her double twisting double, and at the end of the first round of jumping the pair filled third and fourth places.
With lower degree of difficulty jumps in the second round they were overtaken by several more experienced jumpers, but ended the day with personal best total points scores.
Leading qualifier was World Champion Nina Li of China on 200.3 points, with Swiss veteran Evelyne Leu in second place on 196.53.
Leu set a new world record points score for a single jump when she scored 108.68 for the double twisting triple jump in the first round.
Gardner will go into tomorrow’s final with a stronger repertoire, adding a second triple twisting double that she needs to be a podium contender.
Olympic Winter Institute Aerial Skiing coach Todd Ossian had mixed feelings after the qualifying event.
“I’m very disappointed for Lyd and Jac, but excited for the Lainie and Liz,” Ossian said.
“You want all your athletes to do well, but realistically, success at the world championships for Lyd and Jac was never part of the overall plan.”
“That’s always been about working towards 2006, but of course it’s hard for an athlete to realize that when they don’t do well at a world championship.”
“But I’m very proud of the progress Lydia has made on triples this year.”
“Last night I didn’t think Jac would even be jumping today, and as it was, the injury certainly hampered her performance. On her full-full, she needed to use her right arm to slow down the rotation, and she just wasn’t able to do it. To finish in 14th place was a great effort given the circumstances.”
“But I’m really pumped about Liz’s performance. Tomorrow she will be competing two triple twisting doubles, and that puts her ahead of where Alisa was going into the Salt Lake Games.”
The women’s aerials final will be held at 3:00am Saturday morning AEDT.
