Lydia Lassila, Danielle Scott, Laura Peel, Samantha Wells and Dave Morris have trained through a two-week break before wrapping up the World Cup season in Minsk and then Moscow next week before the World Championships in Sierra Nevada.
According to coach Jeff Bean, the Flying Kagaroos Aerial skiers are prepped and ready to go.
“The team is doing great,” Bean said.
“We spent five days in Italy at the Australian Olympic Committee’s European training centre, having some down time and time in the gym preparing for the next three weeks of competition and in preparation for World Championships.”
Olympic Gold and Silver medallist Lydia Lassila took the opportunity for a quick visit home to see her family before heading to Belarus.
“We arrived in Belarus early and were able to get in some training prior to the World Cup this weekend which has served us well as the weather here will be warm this week and we will have limited training,” coach Bean explained.
Samantha Wells, who withdrew from the Olympic test event in Korea as a precaution after sustaining a mild had knock is back in full form.
“Everyone is healthy and Sam is back jumping. She had a great two days of training in Belarus last week,” the coach said. “We are ready to go for the next few weeks of competition.”
With the chance for aerials World Cup crystal globe still wide open for a couple of athletes, including Australia’s Danielle Scott who is currently second on the overall World Cup table, we can expect all the best athletes to be competing this weekend.
In the ladies' World Cup standings China's Xu Mengtao sits on top of the leaderboard with 340 points and an 18 point advantage over Daniele Scott. Xu has never ranked worse than third in all four of her World Cup appearances this season.
Scott has been consistent this season and was the runner-up for the overall title last year. She will be now trying to regain the yellow bib that she lost two weeks ago in Korea. With one victory and two second places so far Scott will have to once again aim high, as returning to the top of podium means also another change on top of the World Cup ranking.
The Minsk Aerial Skiing World Cup qualifications begin today at 5.10pm (AEDT) with the ladies, followed by men at 7.25pm. The finals will be broadcast live on Eurosport from 9.30pm.
LIVE SCORING: Live brackets for qualifications and the finals will be available HERE: