Laura Peel takes victory in Minsk

From www.owia.org

Australian aerial skier Laura Peel has claimed victory overnight at the FIS World Cup event at the Raubichi ski resort in Minsk, Belarus, recording her first gold medal and third podium performance of the season.

The 2015 World Champion from Canberra achieved the highest jump score of her career to win gold, scoring a huge 106.53 points with her full-tuck-full, double twisting, triple backflip somersault.

Rounding out the podium was Mengtao Xu of China, and her teammate Sicun Xu in third.

“It’s an amazing feeling”, an excited Peel commented after the event.

“I’ve definitely been wanting to crack the 100 point mark for a while, I came pretty close last week. But to put down my best jumps when it matters is awesome, all the hard work is coming together.”

“It was tough out there, last week we weren’t sure if the event would even be able to go ahead due to snow conditions, but everyone put in a lot of work so we could jump tonight. We didn’t get a lot of training jumps and today we had some wind and rain, but I think it’s those kind of moments where my experience really pays off.”

“We’ve got two events left and I want to keep doing my best jumps and gain more and more experience on the triple.”

The performance marks the third World Cup victory of the 30 year old athletes career (3 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze).

Following the victory, Peel has now moved up into second place on the FIS World Cup standings with two events remaining in the season. Peel is on 319 points, just 6 points behind World Cup leader Mengtao Xu of China.

The next stop on the World Cup tour for the aerial skiing athletes will take place next weekend in Almaty, Kazakhstan.