Mogul National Champs bring opportunity to up-and-coming skiers

Seventy seven athletes competed in the Moguls Australian Championships at Perisher Ski Resort on Wednesday, in what was the first national championships since 2019, before the COVID pandemic.

Toppa’s Run welcomed athletes from Australia, Japan, Great Britain, USA, The Netherlands, Korea and Austria for what was originally planned to be a two-day event.

However, after heavy rain, wind and fog descended on the course on Tuesday after a handful of training runs, the competition was postponed for the day and moved to Wednesday where two singles moguls events were held back-to-back.

Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham led the charge in both Men’s events winning two gold medals. Australia’s Harvey Jackson won silver in Event 1, with Japan’s Shota Hirayama winning bronze. Hirayama eleventated to silver in Event 2, with his teammate Kosuke Sugimoto in third.

Both women’s events were dominated by Anri Kawamura from Japan, winning back to back golds. The Japanese had a full sweep of the podium in Event 1 with Rino Yanagimoto in silver and Haruka Nakao in bronze. Austria’s Avital Carroll won silver in Event 2 with Nakao securing her second bronze medal.

The Moguls Nationals provided an ideal competition opportunity for Australia’s Emerging Talent Program (ETP) athletes, recently inducted NSWIS Scholarship holders and Australian Mogul Academy skiers to put all their season’s training into practice and test themselves against their Aussie teammates and international rivals.

For 16-year-old Kareema Wakim, after coming back from a season-ending injury, she said competing in her debut Australian Championships alongside her teammates has a great experience

“This is my first season in Perisher, I was meant to do last season but I fractured both my heels on the second training day and the season before that I had COVID, so I’ve missed the last two seaons,” the Australian Mogul Academy athlete said.

“So the highlight is to be here training and competing with everyone, and being back with my teammates is really good.

“I’ve learnt a lot coming back from my injury, so I am stoked to be here… today has been good, the course has held up pretty well and it’s good to get two top to bottoms.”

Wakim, who placed 24th in Event 1 and 19th in Event 2, will now turn her attention to the ABOM Challenge at Mt Buller this weekend before competing at the Australian Interschools Championships at Thredbo next week. 

In the men’s events, 16-year-old Australian Moguls Academy athlete Mac Livissianos said he’s also enjoying being back on snow for the first full season in a few years.

Livissianos’ best result at the 2019 national championships was 35th place, and he said he’s stoked to have made major improvements during training this season to elevate his results to 21st and 28th in the championships week.

“It’s been a really good season, hitting goals has been awesome and sending it on the mogul course out here,” he said.

“The highlight of the season has been getting my first Cork 1080 on snow a few weeks ago.

“The course was a bit solid this morning which was a bit scary, but it’s softened up really nicely to make it easier to ski, even though it is a really challenging course. The jumps are really fun, really kicky, and it’s a lot of fun out here today.”

See all results from the 2022 Australian Moguls Championships HERE