FREESTYLE – AERIALS: Reigning Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila along with Danielle Scott and Laura Peel have done Australia proud, making it through to the finals on Friday night local time.
FREESTYLE – AERIALS: Reigning Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila along with Danielle Scott and Laura Peel have done Australia proud, making it through to the finals on Friday night local time.
In slightly breezy conditions at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, Scott made it directly through to final 1, by finishing third in the top six in qualification 1, scoring 85.36 for her back-Full-Full. After watching a number of competitors before her fall on landing, she downgraded the difficulty of her jump.
“I actually changed it in the gate, according to how the field had gone. It’s all strategy,” the Olympic debutant said.
Lassila, one of those who got too much air and fell on her back in qualification 1, went on in the second chance qualification to execute a beautiful back/Lay-Tuck-Full, scoring 90.65.
"That's better, that's much better," you could see her say to the TV camera at the bottom of the run.
Similarly, Peel landed a neat-looking back-Full-Full off the double kicker, scoring an 85.99 to progress.
24-year-old Samantha Wells, was unlucky to not make it directly through to final 1 after missing out by 0.28 in qualification 1.
“It’s always rough to be seventh in the first qualifier or 13th in the overall standings but I’m happy for everyone who made it in there they really deserved it," Wells said.
For her second jump she was unable to cleanly land a back/Lay-Double Full and finished 12th in qualification 2.
“It’s a new jump for me this year and I’ve only landed one in training.
“I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it in training getting the arm actions to get the twists in the right spot for good vision and I think that’s the best arm action I’ve done so far on that jump so i’m happy with that.
Despite the disappointment of progressing in the competition she was happy with her first Olympic experience and how she handled the pressure.
"I gave the day what I had and played it to how the competition was playing and I came out with what I had."
The outstanding early performer was American skier Ashley Caldwell, who pulled off a back-Full-Full-Full to score 101.25 in qualification 1. China’s skiers are not to be discounted in the finals. Vancouver 2010 Silver medallist Li Nina, 2011 World Champion Cheng Shuang and current World Champion Xu Mengtao also qualified for the finals, which start at 9.30pm Sochi time (4.30am AEDT Saturday). Xu who has been struggling to land cleanly in training was obviously thrilled with her jump.
