Ruka Europa Cup Report
Lloyd Wallace got his ski season off to a flying start by competing in the opening Europa Cup events of the winter in Ruka, Finland. December in Lapland is bitterly cold with the sub-zero temperatures more suited to the native reindeer, but neither the cold, nor the lack of daylight could stop the athletes from training and competing. Our guys were glad of the warm Hestra gloves and down-filled team jackets. The aerial site was floodlit, allowing the Europa Cup events to take place in the evening providing a spectacular show for the fans.
The first training and competition of the season is always a busy time, with athletes having to make the transition from the summer water ramps to landing on snow and slowly build up to their more complex jumps. Lloyd’s training for the competition went well, allowing him to perform one of his new jumps for this season, the Full-Full; two somersaults with one twist in each flip.
The standard of competition was very high on both days, with many World Cup competitors attending to hone their competition skills before the start of the World Cup season in January. Lloyd jumped Lay-Full and his new Full-Full which had gone so well in training, unfortunately in competition he touched down on the first day and fell forward on the second day, finishing in 25th & 23rd place. A disappointing end to a really positive week.
His coach and father, Robin Wallace summed it up saying “Bit of a shame, full-full in competition yesterday he landed but went down to bum. Today good again but pitched forward to do some breaststroke down the landing. Lay-fulls were good and he scored 68 yesterday and 74.82 today (close to a personal best). It would have been pretty hard to make top 15 as the standard was excellent with plenty of World Cuppers here.”
The first event was won by Thomas Lambert (SUI), 2nd place went to David Morris (AUS) and 3rd to Anton Kushnir (BLR). The second event was saw another win for Thomas Lambert (SUI), with Stanislav Kravchuk in second and David Morris (AUS) taking the final podium place.
Lloyd is already looking forward to getting back on the snow with a family holiday over Christmas and the New Year and can’t wait to be sticking down perfect landings in his next competition.
Result Sheet Links
Ruka (FIN) Europa Cup-Mens Results 2012-12-16
Ruka (FIN) Europa Cup-Ladies Results 2012-12-16
Ruka (FIN) Europa Cup-Mens Results 2012-12-17
Ruka (FIN) Europa Cup-Ladies Results 2012-12-17