World Championship silver for Graham in Georgia
Published Sun 26 Feb 2023
Courtesy OWIA
Mogul skier Matt Graham has claimed the second medal for Australia at the 2023 FIS World Championships, with a silver medal performance overnight in Bakuriani, Georgia. Graham has now won medals at the last three World Championships, which are held every two years.
The 2018 Olympic silver medallist placed fifth in the first round of finals with a score of 85.60 points, and then stepped it up in the super-final with a huge score of 88.90 points together with the fastest speed in 22.49 seconds.
Edging out Graham to take the win by just 0.92 points in the last run of the day was the defending World Champion Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, with Walter Walberg of Sweden rounding out the podium in third with a score of 88.52 points.
“It’s pretty surreal to be honest” said the 28-year-old from the NSW Central Coast.
“Everyone was skiing so well today and so fast. In my last run I felt like I had to find three points on top of the other guys, so I just rally planted that top air well, charged though the middle section and then was just hanging on to get off the bottom air and managed to put it to my feet.”
“When the score came up and it was over 88, that was awesome, I knew I had put the pressure on the top guys and managed to hold onto second place, so I am over the moon.”
“My expectations were to come here and enjoy the experience, and really focus on putting down clean runs that I am happy with, and the results would take care of themselves. If I put that run down and came fifth place then so be it, but fortunately enough it was good for a silver, so I am really happy.”
Cooper Woods was the best of the other Aussie skiers in 11th place and World Championship debutants George Murphy and Jackson Harvey were 26th and 28th.
Earlier in the women’s competition Olympic Champion Jakara Anthony was sixth in the qualification round but slipped to 17th after having trouble with her top jump landing.
The mogul skiers will be back in action tonight competing in the World Championships dual mogul event.
