Australia has recorded two top-5 performances at the mogul skiing World Cup in Deer Valley, USA, with Jakara Anthony claiming her seventh podium of the season after taking home a bronze medal and Cooper Woods recording a personal best fifth place finish.
Jakara was in great form on the Champion ski run, winning the qualification round and then qualifying for the super final in first place. In the super final, the 23-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria lost some points with her top air ski out but recovered well to post a score of 79.84 points to win bronze.
Taking the win was 2018 Olympic Champion Perrine Laffont of France with 80.30, as Japanese skier Anri Kawamura finished in second with 80.03. Despite Jakara’s deductions on her ski out, her jumping points were the highest in the final.
“It’s always great to be back in Deer Valley and it’s so exciting that we have a double event here so we can come back and do it all again tomorrow,” Jakara said.
“I am really happy with the changes I have made to my run here, and I was stoked to get some good runs down.”
In the men’s event, Cooper improved on his personal best ninth place finish in Canada last weekend to advance to the first top-six super final of the 21-year-old’s career.
Cooper scored 76.10 points in the super final to finish in a personal best fifth place. 2018 Olympic Champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada won with a score of 83.28 points, with Ikuma Horishima of Japan in second with 81.98 and another Japanese skier Kosuke Sugimoto scoring 79.02 to finish third.
“It was my first super final, I was pretty excited if you want to know the truth," Cooper said.
“I had to take some deep breaths, go over my goals with my coach, and just had to get down the run and put a nice one down.”
Also in action for Australia was Brodie Summers in 19th, Sophie Ash 23rd, James Matheson 24th, Britt Cox 29th and Madii Himbury in 33rd.
A second World Cup event will take place in Deer Valley tomorrow, which be the final mogul skiing competition before the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.
SCOTTY JAMES QUALIFIES FIRST IN LAAX
In Laax, Switzerland 2018 Olympic bronze medallist Scotty James made an impressive return to competition, qualifying for the men’s snowboard halfpipe final in first place.
Aussie teen sensation Valentino Guseli also made it through to the 12-man final after finishing fifth in his heat.
The halfpipe final in Laax will take place early Sunday morning at 3.45am AEDT.
