While the weather in Thaiwoo – like nearby Secret -- has been far from ideal, coach Steve Desovich said that the Australians had nonetheless had a productive “pre-training camp hosted by the resort on the actual competition mogul course”.
“Conditions have been challenging but productive enabling Britt Cox and Matt Graham the opportunity to focus on ongoing skills as well as line selection,” he said.
Cox is set to compete in Thaiwoo after winning gold in a six-woman Super Final at the 2017/18 World Cup season opener in Ruka, Finland last week.
The 23-year-old World Champion described the result at the time as “awesome” particularly as it was on the very same mountain that she had won her first World Cup a year ago.
“We are thrilled with Britt’s performance in Ruka but engaged in the present of an ongoing skill acquisition and course adaptation,” Desovich said.
“The course here, like any new course, presents a variety of challenges and issues to work on.”
For Sochi Olympian Matt Graham, Ruka wasn’t an ideal start to the season with the 23-year-old crashing his second jump after “getting a little out of control in the middle section of the course”.
“The qualifications were pretty wild in the men’s field as the course deteriorated during the training session which made a lot of competitors make mistakes,” he said at the time.
Nevertheless, Desovich said that things are looking up for Graham ahead of this week’s event.
“Matt has done some really nice things in the pre-event training in Thaiwoo,” he said.
“We look forward now to the official training on December 19 and 20 before back-to-back events on December 21 and 22.”
The second FIS Moguls World Cup will run from the 21 – 22 December. You can keep up-to-date with results HERE or follow OWIA on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE for live reporting from the event.
David Barden
OWIA