Australia dominates World Aerials qualifiers

Australians dominated women’s Aerials qualification at the 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships, filling four of six qualification places in the first round.

The Aussies are ranked second, fourth, fifth and sixth going into Final 1 of 12 athletes.   

In the men’s event, Sochi Olympic Games silver medallist David Morris continued the trend, qualifying in fourth position with a score of 112.83.

Leading the charge for Australia in the women’s qualifying was reigning World Champion Laura Peel who scored a commanding 91.65 to progress to the final in second position.  

Peel was second to go in today’s qualifying.

“I like going early but sometimes you don’t want to go at the very beginning,” Peel said.  

“We’re dealing with changing conditions, it’s hot and the wind affects us here, sometimes it’s good to have a couple of people in front of you but today it worked out and I was really happy,” she said.  

Sam Wells booked her finals berth with an 88.83 and fourth position overall, Danielle Scott was fifth with 87.06 and four-time Olympian Lydia Lassila was sixth with 85.65.

Peel said the Aussies were in good spirits after a strong team result.

“Really nice when everybody does well,” Peel said. “We spend so much time together, we all live together so it’s nice when everyone’s pleased.

“It really shows the depth of our team, which adds to our success.”  

US skier Ashley Caldwell put her rivals on notice, qualifying with a huge 103.68 for first place in the women's event and the Aussies know they will need to be at their best if they are to clinch gold.  

“She’s doing triples with more difficulty so she deserves that top qualifying position," Peel said. 

“But tomorrow we have to do three jumps so it’s also about consistency.”

The men’s and women’s Aerial Skiing World Championship Finals at Sierra Nevada, Spain begin at 5:30am AEDST 11 March and will be live streamed above or here.

Courtesy OWIA