Chinese skier Nina Li has joined Lydia Ierodiaconou at the top of the World Cup aerials standings, as the Australian debuted two new high difficulty jumps in Deer Valley, Utah.
Chinese skier Nina Li has joined Lydia Ierodiaconou at the top of the World Cup aerials standings, as the Australian debuted two new high difficulty jumps in Deer Valley, Utah.
Ierodiaconou won bronze but her Chinese rival collected a third win for the season, putting the pair equal on 565 points in the race for the World Cup crystal globe.
Jacqui Cooper, also jumping triple somersaults for the first time this season - and on the same hill where she blew her knee out in training for the Salt Lake 2002 Games - finished in 13th place, missing the final by one place.
Focussing on what she needs to do to stand on top of the Olympic podium in Torino in 2006, Ierodiaconou performed two triple somersaults for the first time in competition, one of them after just five attempts in training on snow.
She opened with that jump in the qualifying round, landed badly and scraped into the final in 12th place with a score of 81.7.
But in the final her second triple somersault earned her 101.85 points, propelling her up to third place with a score of 183.55. Li secured victory with 191.16 points while Veronica Bauer scored 185.30 points to take the silver.
"It's been a hard week both physically and mentally, a big learning experience," said Ierodiaconou.
"I took a lot of knocks today, and to finish up on the podium doing new jumps . . . I'm very, very happy with that."
"Learning the new tricks has been very stressful. But Todd (OWI aerials skiing coach Todd Ossian) has been great, not putting any expectations on me and not caring about the results."
"I know the new jumps are the way I have to go, and if I have to surrender part of the yellow bib, well, so be it."
The best of the Australians behind Ierodiaconou was relative newcomer Lainie Cole, qualifying in eighth place and ultimately finishing in twelfth position.
Liz Gardner was in 14th place and Bree Munro in 27th place.
Ierodiaconou won bronze but her Chinese rival collected a third win for the season, putting the pair equal on 565 points in the race for the World Cup crystal globe.
Jacqui Cooper, also jumping triple somersaults for the first time this season - and on the same hill where she blew her knee out in training for the Salt Lake 2002 Games - finished in 13th place, missing the final by one place.
Focussing on what she needs to do to stand on top of the Olympic podium in Torino in 2006, Ierodiaconou performed two triple somersaults for the first time in competition, one of them after just five attempts in training on snow.
She opened with that jump in the qualifying round, landed badly and scraped into the final in 12th place with a score of 81.7.
But in the final her second triple somersault earned her 101.85 points, propelling her up to third place with a score of 183.55. Li secured victory with 191.16 points while Veronica Bauer scored 185.30 points to take the silver.
"It's been a hard week both physically and mentally, a big learning experience," said Ierodiaconou.
"I took a lot of knocks today, and to finish up on the podium doing new jumps . . . I'm very, very happy with that."
"Learning the new tricks has been very stressful. But Todd (OWI aerials skiing coach Todd Ossian) has been great, not putting any expectations on me and not caring about the results."
"I know the new jumps are the way I have to go, and if I have to surrender part of the yellow bib, well, so be it."
The best of the Australians behind Ierodiaconou was relative newcomer Lainie Cole, qualifying in eighth place and ultimately finishing in twelfth position.
Liz Gardner was in 14th place and Bree Munro in 27th place.
