Matt Graham chalks up 7th ABOM Mogul Challenge Victory

The return of the ABOM Mogul Challenge to Mt Buller yesterday was a display of dazzling bumps skiing with an impressive international and local line up thrilled to be back on the Chamois course.
 
Familiar faces and newcomers were cheered enthusiastically by the spellbound crowd who lined the course all afternoon and into a chilly night rubbing shoulders with plenty of Olympic, World Cup and emerging talent. 
 
The blisteringly dual finals saw the top tier go head to head down the 197 metre course in just 20 seconds, squeezing in two spectacular aerial jumps between high speed bump sections.
 
The highlight of the night was Matt Graham dominating the course and the competition to take home his 7th ABOM trophy – the most titles in the history of the event, followed by Nick Cleaver who has five in his collection.
 
Austrian Avital Carrol beat out a strong stable of Japanese skiers to secure her first ABOM title.

Matt reflected on the win at the bottom of the course saying, “I was up against Kosuke Sugimoto and he’s one of the best skiers in the world so I just had to send it and it all came together in my last run.

"It’s great to be competing again at Mt Buller under lights, it’s the second time we’ve done this and it’s pretty special to be able to it here in Australia. I’m coming back from an injury and getting back into training and loving the sport again, having a lot of fun.”
 
Avital summed up her experience taking out top place on the women’s podium, “It was super fast, super fun, charging all the time and kind of terrifying and super exciting at the same time!”
 
Event director Andrew Pattison was delighted to have the community back together, “This is the fun event that the athletes look forward to, it’s great to be back.”
 
101 athletes competed over the divisions which included open, youth and masters and Mt Buller showed the international mogul community the passion and energy the resort has for the sport beamed via a live-stream from the course.
 
OPEN WOMEN
    1.    Avital Carrol (Austria)
    2.    Rino Yanagimoto (Japan)
    3.    Anri Kawamura (Japan)

OPEN MEN
    1.    Matt Graham (Australia)
    2.    Kosuke Sugimoto (Japan)
    3.    Cooper Woods (Australia)

YOUTH WOMEN
    1.    Talia Manns (Perisher)
    2.    Kayleigh Yap (TBR/Mt Buller)
    3.    Eliza Peake (Perisher)

YOUTH MEN
    1.    Jasper Wong (TBR/Mt Buller)
    2.    Joe Foley (TBR/Mt Buller)
    3.    Tom Guiney (Perisher)

JUNIOR WOMEN
    1.    Yuma Taguchi (Japan)
    2.    Shiori Asano (Japan)
    3.    Xanthia Coote (Perisher)

JUNIOR MEN
    1.    George Murphy (NSWIS)
    2.    Mateo Jeannesson (Great Britain)
    3.    Kaisei Ozasa (Japan)

MASTERS MEN
    1.    David Graham (Australia)
    2.    Sam Hall (Australia)
    3.    Watkin McLennan (TBR Masters)