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Posted on 20 January 2013

World Cup – Lake Placid (2)

World Cup – Lake Placid (2)

The action continued for the World Cup in Lake Placid, NY (USA) with a second night of spectacular aerials at the Olympic jumping centre. 35 men and 25 women took part, all hoping to break the current dominance of the Chinese athletes who appear to have their eyes firmly set on the crystal globe. A large crowd of spectators turned out to enjoy the high flying antics and they were treated to an epic battle of the aerial giants as well as a firework display to end the night.

Buoyed from his performance in his first World Cup the previous evening, Harry Gillam (GBR) jumped his Full-Full with confidence and managed to move up the rankings achieving 27th place. A great weekend in the office for Harry, who said “What an amazing experience I had such a blast at my first World Cups, even though everybody competes against each other they are such good friends!”

Once again, one of the ones to watch was rookie David Morris (Aus), who impressed the judges with his quad-twisting triple back, putting him in third place in the qualification round which was led by Timofei Slivets (RUS) with Zhongquin Liu (CHN) in second. Travis Gerrits (CAN), looking to improve on his 19th place in the first event, made it through to finals in fourth with Nevin Brown (USA) in fifth. With the 12 man final made up of skiers from seven nations, it looked as if there could be an upset on the cards for the Chinese, but it wasn’t to be.

The order was shaken up again in the first final, when Liu (CHN) dropped down to ninth place although Travis Gerrits (CAN) was more than shaken when he came in short with his quad-twisting-triple, landing face-first in a spectacular crash. He finished in 12th but is expected to make a full recovery in time for the next World Cup. Jia Zongyang (CHN) took the lead going in to the Super-Final with Morris (AUS) moving up to second with Dmitri Dashinski (BLR) third and Petr Medulich (RUS) picking up the remaining place.

In the Super-Final, nobody could deny Jia (CHN) from the gold, with Dashinski (BLR) unable to repeat his win from Val Saint-Côme the week before and taking the silver. Medulich (RUS) claimed the bronze, meaning David Morris (AUS) just missed out on his second podium of the weekend, although I’m sure he’ll be happy with another great result.

In the women’s event, after making the podium the night before, Emily Cook (USA) only managed 14th spot as the Australians Laura Peel and Lydia Lassila looked very strong in qualification. The Chinese women came to the fore in the first final round and dominated the top three spots with Lassila in fourth. It looked as if the women’s Super-Final was about to be a clean sweep for the Chinese. In the end, there were some surprises… Mengtao Xu (CHN) who had won all three previous World Cups showed a chink in her armour and slipped to third place, allowing Lassila (AUS) to take second and the win went to Yu Yang (CHN). The standard in the women’s aerials this year is very high with triple-twisting doubles and double-twisting triples being needed to make the Super-Final.

We are now half way through the World Cup tour for 2013. The action is still hotting up as the circuit now moves on the Deer Valley (USA) at the end of the month.

One last word from Harry:

I can’t wait to compete on the World Cup circuit again hopefully performing my new jumps in Deer Valley !!!

Photo courtesy of FIS Freestyle

Result Sheet Links

Lake Placid Men’s Qualification 2013-01-19
Lake Placid Men’s Final 2013-01-19
Lake Placid Women’s Final 2013-01-19