Teen sensations Britt Cox and Matt Graham defended their junior national mogul championship titles at Mt Buller over the weekend.
Cox, who finished 12th in this year's World Championships at Deer Valley in the USA in February, delivered a solid victory over NSWIS scholarship skiers, second place getter Taylah O'Neill, and 2009 Junior Champion Nicole Parks, in third spot.
The 16-year-old AIS/NSWIS athlete blasted down the 170-metre Chamois run, 1.23 points ahead of her O'Neill, with Parks a further 0.3 points down the results list.
Graham, also 16-years-old, had to fight much harder in his event to fend off another pair of NSWIS skiers Brodie Summers and James Matheson, who achieved his best ever finish in the junior titles by finishing in third place.
Australian Institute of Sport Head Moguls Coach, Steve Desovich, was impressed by a number of athletes competing today but paid special tribute to Cox and Graham, stating that both have achieved noticeable improvements with specific goals.
Cox, one of the hardest working athletes in Australia's AIS scholarship program, showed during last season's World Cup season that she needed to work on speed and jumping height to take the next step in her blossoming career.
Much to Desovich's admiration, Cox has made significant improvement, particularly with her speed, but hastens to add that the real extent of her development will not be known until she competes against international competitors, at Perisher on August 19.
Desovich uses a distance per second formula to quantify speed on a mogul course. During the last northern hemisphere season, Cox was eight seconds over the formula's "par" figure but today she was just 2.2 seconds slower than the ideal speed.
Much of the improvement has come from an arduous weights program and in-depth analysis of her technique.
Desovich praised the NSW Institute of Sport sports scientist John Marsden who has worked tirelessly with Cox to enhance her leg absorption technique through moguls.
Desovich was impressed by Graham's fighting spirit today, given that he still won after making several errors during the middle section of his run.
Desovich said he thought Graham secured today's title from his strength in the air, particularly in the final, but has challenged the Perisher skier to achieve further improvement with his turns.
"We are particularly happy to invest a lot of time and energy in Britt and Matt and we are very pleased with what we're seeing," Desovich said.
He admits that it is still too early to predict how the recent improvements made by Cox and Graham will stand up in World Cup competition but added that at just 16-years of age they hold a great deal of hope.
And the pressure that both athletes were under today, going into the event as white hot favourites to win, was another challenge Cox and Graham conquered.
The boys' Youth title was won by local club skier Max Bernard from Team Buller Riders followed by Peter Miliken from the Perisher Winter Sports Club in second and third place going to Matt Anthony also from Team Buller Riders.
The girls' event was won convincingly by Jakara Anthony, ahead of Eliza Honan both from Team Buller Riders and Krystal Yin form Perisher in third.
Cox and Graham along with a field of 100 of Australia's best junior mogul skiers were disappointed when the dual mogul event was cancelled due to poor visibility on Sunday morning.
Cox, who finished 12th in this year's World Championships at Deer Valley in the USA in February, delivered a solid victory over NSWIS scholarship skiers, second place getter Taylah O'Neill, and 2009 Junior Champion Nicole Parks, in third spot.
The 16-year-old AIS/NSWIS athlete blasted down the 170-metre Chamois run, 1.23 points ahead of her O'Neill, with Parks a further 0.3 points down the results list.
Graham, also 16-years-old, had to fight much harder in his event to fend off another pair of NSWIS skiers Brodie Summers and James Matheson, who achieved his best ever finish in the junior titles by finishing in third place.
Australian Institute of Sport Head Moguls Coach, Steve Desovich, was impressed by a number of athletes competing today but paid special tribute to Cox and Graham, stating that both have achieved noticeable improvements with specific goals.
Cox, one of the hardest working athletes in Australia's AIS scholarship program, showed during last season's World Cup season that she needed to work on speed and jumping height to take the next step in her blossoming career.
Much to Desovich's admiration, Cox has made significant improvement, particularly with her speed, but hastens to add that the real extent of her development will not be known until she competes against international competitors, at Perisher on August 19.
Desovich uses a distance per second formula to quantify speed on a mogul course. During the last northern hemisphere season, Cox was eight seconds over the formula's "par" figure but today she was just 2.2 seconds slower than the ideal speed.
Much of the improvement has come from an arduous weights program and in-depth analysis of her technique.
Desovich praised the NSW Institute of Sport sports scientist John Marsden who has worked tirelessly with Cox to enhance her leg absorption technique through moguls.
Desovich was impressed by Graham's fighting spirit today, given that he still won after making several errors during the middle section of his run.
Desovich said he thought Graham secured today's title from his strength in the air, particularly in the final, but has challenged the Perisher skier to achieve further improvement with his turns.
"We are particularly happy to invest a lot of time and energy in Britt and Matt and we are very pleased with what we're seeing," Desovich said.
He admits that it is still too early to predict how the recent improvements made by Cox and Graham will stand up in World Cup competition but added that at just 16-years of age they hold a great deal of hope.
And the pressure that both athletes were under today, going into the event as white hot favourites to win, was another challenge Cox and Graham conquered.
The boys' Youth title was won by local club skier Max Bernard from Team Buller Riders followed by Peter Miliken from the Perisher Winter Sports Club in second and third place going to Matt Anthony also from Team Buller Riders.
The girls' event was won convincingly by Jakara Anthony, ahead of Eliza Honan both from Team Buller Riders and Krystal Yin form Perisher in third.
Cox and Graham along with a field of 100 of Australia's best junior mogul skiers were disappointed when the dual mogul event was cancelled due to poor visibility on Sunday morning.
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