FREESTYLE SKIING: Twenty-year-old Australian Matt Graham finished his moguls World Cup season on a high when he secured his third medal for 2014/15 in Tazawako, Japan.

Graham’s third place in the World Cup dual moguls in Tazawako is the 11th medal in World Cup and World Championships this season for Australian winter sport athletes, underlining the strength of Aussie performances this season.

The event was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, who made it back-to-back victories in Japan, ahead of compatriot Philippe Marquis in second.

After a slow start to the season, Graham hit his straps in January by taking the silver medal in Deer Valley, USA, and followed up with another second place in Val St Come, Canada, three weeks ago.

Yesterday’s bronze medal, Graham’s first podium finish in duals, caps off a highly successful season for Graham and the OWIA/NSWIS moguls program.

Graham and his teammate Britt Cox have made it to the podium of five occasions this season, clearly demonstrating that Australian moguls skiing is going from strength to strength.

Graham’s result yesterday has cemented his world ranking of four and despite the fact that he will not compete in the last stop on the World Cup tour in Megeve, France, on March 15, it seems likely that he will retain this ranking at season end.

Canadian Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh is currently in fifth position on the standings, 68 points behind the Aussie.

Coming off a 10^th place in the singles event in Tazawako on Saturday, Graham was determined to wrap up his season with a strong performance in the duals, which is exactly what he did right from the start of competition.

He was given a bye in the round of 64, due to his strong world ranking, then ended Russian Maksim Mikhaylov’s day in the round of 32, accounted for Frenchman Benjamin Cavet in the quarters but then came up against Kingsbury, the world number one, in a semi-final.

Graham, who is normally a strong starter in dual moguls, was slow out of the gate in the semi and with the high importance placed on speed in duals, the Aussie was always playing catch up, enabling the Canadian to win through to the final.

This placed the Australian in the consolation final against Pouliot-Cavanagh to battle it out for the third medal. Graham was the dominant skier throughout the consolation final.

Graham labelled the season as a “breakthrough” in terms of fulfilling his career ambitions.

“Overall this season has been a bit of a breakthrough year for me,” Graham said.

“It has really motivated me to work hard this off season and come back stronger again next year.

“Right now I am really enjoying mogul skiing, I feel like I am 12 years old again, just going out having fun each day training and I think that has made a big difference this year.”

The architect of the moguls skiing program’s success, head coach Steve Desovich paid tribute to Graham and Cox, praising their work ethic in the off season and throughout the northern hemisphere winter as well as acknowledging the valuable input from strength and conditioning coach John Marsden and moguls skiing aerial coach Jerry Grossi.

“I’d say this has been a very good season,” Desovich said.

“I didn’t expect Matt to be on the podium three times this season. I thought he may be ready for some special results but until it happens, you can’t say it’s expected.

“But the process of moving forward never stops. In this game if you are not getting better, you’re getting worse.

“With Britt’s podium at the World Championships and in duals in Deer Valley, we are very pleased with her also.

“If we look at the program as a whole, those two kids have done great and we are exceptionally pleased.”

In Minsk, Belarus, last night (Australian time) Aussie aerial skiers Laura Peel and Danielle Scott finished the qualification session in first and second place before ending the day in fourth and eighth respectively.

Peel earned a place in the six woman super-final with the fifth best jump in final one while Scott was eighth in the same round, which missed a spot in the medal round.

The third OWIA/VIS team member Renee McElduff was unable to advance to the finals, finishing the qualification round in 13^th.

Americans Ashley Caldwell and Kiley Mckinnon were the gold and silver medallists, while Russian Veronika Korsunova finished third.

It was a day that did not go to plan, in more ways than one, for the Australians.

Scott started the day with an outside chance of overtaking Mckinnon on standings, which would have seen the Australian finish the year as the world’s top ranked aerial skier, however, it was not to be.

Scott needed to finish in either first or second and Mckinnon outside the top six.

Scott finished the season with a world ranking of three and along with her teammates, the squad is planning to further improve on this season’s outstanding results.

Aerial skiing coach Jeff Bean said that there are so many highlights to the season.

“Laura winning World Championships, all three girls winning events this season, all three girls inside the top 10 in the world and to see the progression they all made through the year with their jumping and consistency in competition,” Bean said.

Results

World Cup men’s dual moguls skiing, Tazawako, Japan

1.       Mikael Kingsbury (CAN), 2. Philippe Marquis (CAN, 3. Matt Graham (AUS), 4. Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh (CAN) 5. Marc Antoine Gagnon (CAN), 6. Jeremy Cota (USA).

World Cup moguls skiing standings, after round 8

1.       Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) 729, 2. Philippe Marquis (CAN) 381, 3. Alexandr Smyshlyaev (RUS) 370, 4. Matt Graham (AUS) 347, 5. Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh (CAN) 279, 6. Marc Antoine Gagnon (CAN) 264.

Women’s World Cup aerial skiing, Minsk, Belarus

1.       Ashley Caldwell (USA), 2. Kiley Mckinnon (USA), 3.Veronika Korsunova (RUS),4. Laura Peel (AUS), 5. Olga Polyuk (UKR), 6. Hanna Huskova (BLR), 8. Danielle Scott (AUS), 13. Renee McElduff (AUS).

Women’s aerial skiing standings, after round 7.

1.       Kiley Mckinnon (USA) 407, 2. Ashley Caldwell (USA) 324, 3. Danielle Scott (AUS) 296, 4. Veronika Korsunova (RUS) 277,5. Hanna Huskova (BLR) 256, 6. Mengtao Xu (CHN) 249, 7. Renee McElduff (AUS) 237, 8. Laura Peel (AUS) 215.

OWI