Liz Gardner has finished in fifth place in the Moscow aerial skiing World Cup, topping the Australian performances in an event that the Flying Kangaroos were relieved to complete unharmed.

Competing on a temporary jump hill constructed from scaffolding in the grounds of the University of Moscow, athletes battled strong headwinds and struggled to get enough speed for their takeoffs.

Jacqui Cooper fared the worst, aborting her triple twisting triple somersault in mid-flight, but landing safely.

The World Cup leader received no score for not performing her nominated jump, and finished in 12th and last place.

Gardner led the field after the opening round of jumps, but slipped to fifth with her second jump, a relatively low level of difficulty single twisting double somersault.

The 27-year-old Mt Buller skier finished on a total of 154.44 points.

Australia’s number two, Lydia Lassila, missed the landing on her first jump, improved in her second effort but could only manage 10th place overall on 139.76 points.

The gold went to US skier Emily Cook on 160.41 points.

Canada’s Deidre Dionne was second on 159.28 points, with third place going to Chinese jumper Xin Zhang on 156.51.

“It was a pretty crazy event,“ Gardner said.

“We didn’t have enough speed – on the double, Lyd and I were being pushed into the jump – we had someone pushing us so we could get enough speed down the inrun.”

“And it was really windy – a headwind. And a crazy crowd – there was probably 30 to 40,000, a surreal experience.”

“I did a really good first jump and was in first place after the first round, and then the second jump was a good jump in the air but didn’t have such a good landing and I ended up in fifth which was a little disappointing.”

“But given the conditions, it was great to put down a really nice first jump.”

Cooper also had major in-run speed problems.

“I was severely hampered by the lack of in-run and the lack of training,” Cooper said.

“We hadn’t trained for two weeks coming from Japan and a break, and there was no training all week for me on the triple kicker. Then I did four jumps in the training before the event.”

“The wind got heavier and heavier and heavier, and I thought about pulling out just before the contest because it was already very dicey during the practice.”

“I did all my jumps from the same point and normally I’m about five metres higher than the men, but I was starting at the same place as the guys which was at the top – I had someone pushing me down the in-run to get more speed.”

“I knew halfway down the in-run for my competition jump – I went into SOS mode. I missed my takeoff and started twisting and flipping and unfortunately I didn’t do the jump I’d called but fortunately I wasn’t injured and decided not to do the second jump because the risks were too great and I had nothing to gain.”

“So disappointed, but ready to go back to Davos. I won a World Cup there (immediately after the Torino Games) and I’m looking forward to finishing off the season with two really nice jumps at a really nice venue and bringing the World Cup home.”

The result had no impact on the battle for the World Cup title, Cooper having wrapped that up at the previous event in Inawashiro two weeks ago.

But Lassila’s tenth placing has dropped her back to fourth position on the standings.

She now has 380 points, 13 behind Belarussian Alla Tsuper and 25 points behind second placed skier Nina Li of China.

The final event of the aerial skiing season will be contested in Davos, Switzerland, next weekend.