Australia's best day in mogul skiing
Published Sun 11 Dec 2016
All the medal winners from the Mogul World Cup at Ruka. Image courtesy FIS
Article Courtesy www.owia.org
What a day for Australian moguls with Matt Graham winning silver in the Ruka, Finland World Cup adding to Britt Cox's earlier Gold.
This is the first time that Australians have been first and second in the same World Cup event, a result which delights OWIA CEO, Geoff Lipshut.
"Statistically, this morning's results have been the OWIA's best ever moguls day," Lipshut declared.
Britteny Cox delivered Australia's the best-ever Ladies Moguls World Cup result winning Gold in magnificent style in the season's opener and Head Coach Steve Desovich is happy.
"Britt got through from the qualification in only 11th place, but she had a great run in the round of 16, and went into the superfinal ranked number 1. A strong performance skiing the last run of the night gave her a great first win of her career," he said.
Success sits well with the 22-year-old from Mt Beauty in Victoria.
"I am so excited to kick of the season with my first World Cup win. This has been a goal of mine for quite some time now and it's very satisfying to finally climb to the top of the podium," Britt said this morning.
"I made a big mistake in my first qualification run so I knew I needed to execute a nice clean and tidy run in the second quals to get back in the game. Once I reached the finals I found my gear and let my training come through."
"Sharing the podium with a team mate makes it even more special. It's a very proud moment to be there with Matt, and makes it even more special."
"The whole team, including the coaches and OWIA support staff worked really well together here and I'm really grateful for the support we have, which gives me confidence for the rest of the season."
Execution, speed and detail were all on show as Britt skiied a brilliant run to score 73.81 in the final ahead of Perrine Laffont (FRA) close behind on 73.13 and Keaton McCargo (USA) on 71.78.
Graham, from the NSW Central Coast, was well prepared for the opening World Cup - knowing that all eyes would once again be on Canada's Mikael Kingsbury, who claimed his 30th career victory and clearly the favourite for the win in Ruka.
"Matt was very solid today, he skied well at all stages of the event. It is great to see him pick where he left off last season," said coach Steve (Des) Desovich.
Kingsbury was challenged by Graham whose solid performances had him second in the qualifying and both finals, displaying the consistency that the Australian coaches Des and Jerry are looking for in their squad.
In the end, Kingsbury won by four points with 84.26, followed by Matt Graham on 80.30 just edging out Ben Cavet from France who scored 80.11.
"Rohan Chapman Davies also did a really nice job today to qualify for the final and then register a PB in 14th place," Coach Desovich added.
The moguls team are headed back to Australia for a two-week strength and conditioning camp before the North American leg of the tour.