Mont-Gabriel aerials: Canadian men sweep, Swiss women roll

By Published On: January 9th, 2006Comments Off on Mont-Gabriel aerials: Canadian men sweep, Swiss women roll

Mont-Gabriel aerials: Canadian men sweep, Swiss women roll{mosimage}STE-ADELE, Quebec – Kyle Nissen led Canada to a sweep of the top four spots at a World Cup aerials event Sunday while Swiss skiers Evelyne Leu and Manuela Mueller finished one-two among the women.

Nissen, the overall aerials leaders, had a two-jump score of 252.88 points at Mont-Gabriel. He was followed by Jeff Bean (247.23), Warren Shouldice (247.13) and Ryan Blais (246.30).

In women’s aerials, Leu led with 195.44 points, with Mueller at 185.93. Tatiana Kozachenko of Ukraine was third with 178.91.

Canada’s Deidra Dionne competed in her first event since breaking her neck four months ago in Australia and finished 11th.

Olympics-bound American aerialist Emily Cook had her best World Cup result of the season Sunday, finishing sixth.

Nissen collected his first World Cup win in six years after connecting on a quad-twisting, triple flip (four twists, three somersaults) and triple-twisting, triple flip.

Joe Pack, the 2002 Olympic silver medalist in aerials, was the only U.S. man to make finals, finishing 12th.

Leu earned her fifth World Cup win with 195.44. Cook, who won the women’s berth from the U.S. Ski Team Olympic trials Dec. 30 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., was almost perfect in her landings as she compiled 169.43 for a double-twisting, double somersault and a lay full, a single-twisting and flipping jump. Lacy Schnoor was ninth, the best result of her young career.

‘The guys just weren’t landing today. You don’t hit your landings, you don’t do well. It’s disappointing, especially since everyone was training so well this week. They just didn’t bring their jumps, their landings into the comp’ said U.S. head coach Jeff Wintersteen.

The next World Cup competition is the Chevrolet Freestyle International Friday and Saturday at Deer Valley, Utah.

The Deer Valley events – aerials Friday and Saturday afternoons with moguls Friday night under the lights – and the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup Jan. 20-22 at Lake Placid, N.Y., are the final pre-Olympic qualifying events for U.S. athletes; the freestyle Olympic Team will be named Jan. 25.

– The Associated Press/USSA

Freestyle World Cup aerials results
Men
(12 finalists)

1. Kyle Nissen, Canada, 252.88 points.
2. Jeff Bean, Canada, 247.23.
3. Warren Shouldice, Canada, 247.13.
4. Ryan Blais, Canada, 246.30.
5. Ou Xiaotao, China, 244.70.
6. Ales Valenta, Czech Republic, 242.92.
7. Thomas Lambert, Switzerland, 236.56.
8. Han Xiaopeng, China, 235.85.
9. Qiu Sen, China, 232.96.
10. Ken Mizuno, Japan, 225.53.
11. Enver Ablaev, Ukraine, 225.31.
12. Joe Pack, United States, 215.11.

Also
(After one-jump qualification)
13. Vladimir Lebedev, Russia, 109.92.
14. Jeret Peterson, United States, 109.51.
15. Aurelien Lohrer, France, 108.13.
16. Renato Ulrich, Switzerland, 106.20.

World Cup standings
(After five of 11 events)

1. Kyle Nissen, Canada, 360 points.
2. Warren Shouldice, Canada, 235.
3. Ryan St. Onge, United States, 194.
4. Jeret Peterson, United States, 191.
5. Qui Sen, China, 187.
6. Dmitri Dashinski, Belarus, 180.
7. Alexei Grishin, Belarus, 161.
8. Han Xiaopeng, China, 143.
9. Jeff Bean, Canada, 138.
10. Eric Bergoust, United States, 106.

Women
(12 finalists)

1. Evelyne Leu, Switzerland, 199.44 points.
2. Manuela Mueller, Switzerland, 185.93.
3. Tatiana Kozachenko, Ukraine, 178.91.
4. Olga Koroleva Russia, 169.88.
5. Lanie Cole, Australia, 169.69.
6. Emily Cook, United States, 169.43.
7. Amber Peterson, Canada, 160.79.
8. Kayo Henmi, Japan, 160.64.
9. Lacy Schnoor, United States, 160.02.
10. Li Nina, China, 151.57.
11. Deidra Dionne, Canada, 147.25.
12. Anna Belikh, Russia, 143.05.

Also
(after one-jump qualification)

13. Elise Pallard, Canada, 78.01.
14. Bree Munro, Australia, 76.84.
15. Jill Priest, United States, 75.12.
16. Nadiya Didenko, Ukraine, 73.08.

World Cup standings
(After five of 11 events)

1. Xu Nannan, China, 238.
2. Evelyne Leu, Switzerland, 235.
3. Li Nina, China, 226.
4. Manuela Mueller, Switzerland, 189.
5. Emily Cook, United States 174.
6. Alla Tsuper, Belarus, 172.
7. Oly Slivets, Belarus, 150.
8. Cheng Shuang, China, 148.
9. Veronika Bauer, Toronto, 148.
10. Lanie Cole, Australia, 139.

Nations Cup standings
1. Canada, 1,629 points.
2. United States, 1,511.
3. China, 1,094.
4. Belarus, 755.
5. Switzerland, 676.
6. Australia, 542.
7. Japan, 427.
8. Finland, 315.
9. Ukraine, 309.
10. Russia, 291.

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