Australia’s Lydia Ierodiaconou has cemented her place as the number one world aerial skier with back-to back victories in the Alpine Exposure World Aerials at Mt Buller, the first two rounds of the 2004/5 FIS World Cup circuit.
Australia’s Lydia Ierodiaconou has cemented her place as the number one world aerial skier with back-to back victories in the Alpine Exposure World Aerials at Mt Buller, the first two rounds of the 2004/5 FIS World Cup circuit.
Jacqui Cooper, who finished seventh today, leaves Mt Buller as the world’s number two ranked skier, completing a triumphant return to the sport after missing the last two and a half years of World Cup competition with a knee injury sustained at the 2002 Olympic Games.
Ierodiaconou’s victory today was emphatic, scoring a total of 205.71, the highest score of her career. She finished 23.22 points clear of second placegetter, Deidra Dionne of Canada (182.49 points) with China’s Nina Li third (178.55 points).
Cooper, landed two clean jumps, but her score of 164.28 was down on the score for the same two jumps completed yesterday when she took the silver medal.
The former world number one was third after her first jump, a double twisting double somersault, but failed to impress the judges with her second effort, a single twisting double, despite landing the jump.
But the 31 year-old veteran was delighted with her strong showing after such a long rehabilitation.
Across the two days just four jumps scored over the magical 100 point barrier in the women’s competition, and they all belonged to Ierodiaconou. Her two triple twisting double somersaults were magnificently executed today, and with Olympic and World Champion Alisa Camplin on the sidelines, the 22 year-old Melbourne skier is now clearly the one to beat this World Cup season.
Another member of the Flying Kangaroos, Lainie Cole, finished in eighth place (159.65) after landing both her jumps cleanly. Liz Gardiner finished in 11th place with 142.57 and Bree Munro was 14th with 118.05 points.
The men’s competition was won by Ales Valenta from the Czech Republic, who set a new world record mark of 262.76 for his two quadruple twisting triple somersaults.
Second place went to Jeret Peterson of the US with Dmitri Dashinski in third.
Forty athletes from eleven nations competed at Mt Buller this weekend in the first two rounds of the 2004/5 FIS World Cup circuit. There are a total of 13 World Cup events in the season. The next event is in Cortina, Italy, in December.
Jacqui Cooper, who finished seventh today, leaves Mt Buller as the world’s number two ranked skier, completing a triumphant return to the sport after missing the last two and a half years of World Cup competition with a knee injury sustained at the 2002 Olympic Games.
Ierodiaconou’s victory today was emphatic, scoring a total of 205.71, the highest score of her career. She finished 23.22 points clear of second placegetter, Deidra Dionne of Canada (182.49 points) with China’s Nina Li third (178.55 points).
Cooper, landed two clean jumps, but her score of 164.28 was down on the score for the same two jumps completed yesterday when she took the silver medal.
The former world number one was third after her first jump, a double twisting double somersault, but failed to impress the judges with her second effort, a single twisting double, despite landing the jump.
But the 31 year-old veteran was delighted with her strong showing after such a long rehabilitation.
Across the two days just four jumps scored over the magical 100 point barrier in the women’s competition, and they all belonged to Ierodiaconou. Her two triple twisting double somersaults were magnificently executed today, and with Olympic and World Champion Alisa Camplin on the sidelines, the 22 year-old Melbourne skier is now clearly the one to beat this World Cup season.
Another member of the Flying Kangaroos, Lainie Cole, finished in eighth place (159.65) after landing both her jumps cleanly. Liz Gardiner finished in 11th place with 142.57 and Bree Munro was 14th with 118.05 points.
The men’s competition was won by Ales Valenta from the Czech Republic, who set a new world record mark of 262.76 for his two quadruple twisting triple somersaults.
Second place went to Jeret Peterson of the US with Dmitri Dashinski in third.
Forty athletes from eleven nations competed at Mt Buller this weekend in the first two rounds of the 2004/5 FIS World Cup circuit. There are a total of 13 World Cup events in the season. The next event is in Cortina, Italy, in December.