Australian aerial skiers Danielle Scott and Samantha Wells continued their encouraging start to their debut World Cup season by qualifying for the finals in Lake Placid, USA.

Both Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holders advanced to their second finals appearance within five days, backing up their impressive start to the season opener in Canada last weekend.

In a field that boasted the current champion and runner-up from the last World Championships, Scott finished 11th while teammate Wells was one place lower.

The second World Cup event of the year was a clean sweep for China with Mengtao Xu winning gold, World Champion Shuang Cheng securing silver and Fanyu Kong picking up bronze.

Australia’s Laura Peel, who finished on the podium in the first round in Canada, finished 14th.

She was affected by a strong tail wind while approaching the take-off kicker in her qualifying jump and missed the cut for the finals.

The fourth team member Renee McElduff, who is also experiencing her first World Cup season, was 18th.

It was a physically demanding day for all athletes, with qualifying held in gusty conditions in the afternoon and the finals under lights four hours later.

The young team now faces round three of the World Cup, the second part of the Lake Placid double-header, tomorrow.

Results – round two women’s World Cup aerial skiing, Lake Placid, USA:
1. Mengtao Xu (CHN) 93.06, 2, Shuang Cheng (CHN) 85.65, 3. Fanyu Kong (CHN) 81.2, 4. Olga Volkova (UKR) 71.97, 5. Nadiya Didenko (UKR) 81.42, 6. Olga Polyuk (UKR) 79.08, 7. Tanja Schaerer (SUI) 77.17, 8. Emily Cook (USA) 77.01, 9. Allison Lee (USA) 73.8, 10. Alina Gridneva (RUS) 73.45, 11. Danielle Scott (AUS) 70.98, 12. Samantha Wells (AUS) 68.87, 14. Laura Peel (AUS) 60.16, 18. Renee McElduff (AUS) 41.99.