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Posted on 20 January 2014

Lake Placid WC 2014 Report

Lake Placid WC 2014 Report

Lake Placid (USA) was the final stop on the aerials World Cup tour 2014 deciding not only the winners of the Crystal Globes, but also the last chance for any of the athletes to stake a claim on a place in Sochi before the Olympic qualification window slammed shut. Conditions had been mild throughout training and light snow began falling which continued into the evening as finals took place under the floodlights with a crowd numbering in the thousands.

In the ladies event, China once again looked very strong, grabbing five of the available places in qualification. Lydia Lassila (AUS) was unable to repeat her success from Val Saint-Côme as she failed to land her triple somersault and finished down in 22nd place. Other places for the evening final went to USA, CAN, UKR and AUS.

Despite winning Final-1, Mengtao Xu (CHN) missed her landing in Final-2 and finished in 4th place. Nina Li (CHN) ended the night on the top step of the podium with a polished bdFF beating Danielle Scott (AUS) into 2nd who performed a faultless bFF and Zin Xhang (CHN) picked up 3rd place with bFdF for her second podium in a row.

The standard of jumping was incredibly high as the men’s event got under way and a mighty battle took place between the Chinese and Belarussians for top honours in qualification and the final. Just 16 points separated the top 12 men and the first casualty of the cut was Mac Bohonnon (USA) who after his career best 2nd place in Val Saint-Côme, ended up in the dreaded 13th spot and out of the finals. Top of the heap was Guangpu Qi (CHN) who eclipsed Anton Kushnir (BLR) by less than a quarter of a point. Nail biting stuff indeed!

The Brits showed some improvement with Harry Gillam jumping a good Lay-Full-Full, but was unable to hold onto the landing and finished in 31st. Lloyd Wallace nailed his doubleFull-Full with good form and a very respectable score of 83.89 to finish in 26th place.

Belarus fought back in Final-1, with the reigning Olympic Champion Dmitri Dashinski (BLR) hitting the top spot. Qi was in 2nd, Zhongquing Liu (CHN) in 3rd and Alexei Grishin (BLR) all making it through to Final-2 for a China vs. Belarussia showdown. In the end, Guangpu Qi was not to be denied as China confirmed their dominance with Liu in 2nd place. Grishin had to make do with 3rd and poor Dmitri Dashinski couldn’t take his final jump after falling in the stopping area during the previous round and wrenching his shoulder, thus finishing in 4th place.

Lloyd had this to say of his time in Lake Placid:

Woohoo! Had a great competition! Nailed my landing, a great way to finish off the World Cup tour!

With the window of opportunity for Sochi now closed, Harry and Lloyd are due a little R&R before competitions recommence after the Olympic Games. There are still points to be won in NorAm, Europa Cup and most importantly for Lloyd, the World Junior Championships held in Italy during March, where he has an excellent chance of a podium. Once this season ends, both the lads will be excellently placed to prepare for the 2018 games in Pyeonchang, Korea.

Harry Gillam and Lloyd Wallace TeamGB

Harry Gillam and Lloyd Wallace TeamGB

So that wraps up the last of the World Cup Aerial events for this year.

Congratulations to the 2014 Crystal Globe winners.

Men

1st: Zhongquing Liu (CHN) – 308 pts
2nd: Guangpu Qi (CHN) – 268 pts
3rd: Anton Kushnir (BLR) – 243 pts

Ladies

1st: Nina Li (CHN) – 356 pts
2nd: Xin Zhang (CHN) – 316 pts
3rd: Mengtao Xu (CHN) – 246 pts

Video highlights of the event

Ladies’ Final
Men’s Final

Links to the full FIS results

World Cup Lake Placid (USA) Ladies’ Results
World Cup Lake Placid (USA) Men’s Results