Australia’s aerial skiing rookie Danielle Scott broke into the world’s top 10 rankings for the first time in her developing career by setting a new personal best in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Scott’s impressive performance saw her finish in 6th place, giving her the best result of the Australian team competing in the World Cup eighth round event.

It was the second consecutive time that the 22-year-old Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder has created a new personal benchmark.

With World Cup gold and bronze medals to her name, Laura Peel has been the team’s top performer this season, however, Scott’s consistency has placed her in every final of the seven rounds contested by the AIS / VIS squad.

To ease Scott into World Cup competition, it was originally planned that the Mt Buller skier would return to Australia after the fifth round in Deer Valley, USA.

However, AIS aerial skiing program coaching and support staff have been so impressed by Scott’s consistency in competition and improvement, that her tour has been extended and she will now complete in the season’s remaining World Cup rounds in Moscow, Russia, and Myrkdalen-Voss, Norway.

Immediately after the medal ceremony, which saw China’s Yu Yang, Switzerland’s Tanja Schaerer and China’s Xin Zhang presented with the gold, silver and bronze, Scott emailed her number one fans, her mother and father, who were anxiously waiting on news to reach them in Sydney.

“I am really pleased by this result and I can’t wait to compete in the last two events of the year,” Scott said.

“I am very grateful to the OWI, AIS and VIS as well as my parents. Without their assistance, I could not have done this.

“Mum and Dad are over the moon.”

Scott’s 6th place in the final, after qualifying 10th, was made even more impressive due to the challenging warmer than usual conditions and strong head winds. A large quantity of salt was added to the run up areas, and along with head winds, speed approaching the take off ramp was affected.

More experienced athletes usually have the knowhow to compensate for uncommon conditions, yet Scott showed composure and adaptability, despite being a World Cup rookie, on her way to her best World Cup result.

Teammates Laura Peel, who is now 5th in the world, finished 12th after failing to land her full-full jump cleanly in the final after qualifying in 5th place while Sam Wells, another World Cup rookie, was 13th just missing the cut for a spot in the final by sixty-five hundredths of a point..

The team’s next World Cup event is on March 10 in Moscow.

Twenty-two-year-old aerial skier, Laura Peel, has recorded a break-through victory to take a World Cup gold medal in Kreischberg, Austria, today.

The Mt Buller skier joins the elite group of Kirstie Marshall, Jacqui Cooper, Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila as the only Australians to have won a World Cup aerial skiing event.

It is the first major international win by an Australian aerial skier since Lassila won gold at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games two years ago.

Peel finished ahead of Ukrainian Olga Volkova, who was a medalist at last year’s World Championships, and China’s Yu Yang in third place.

The win by the Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport athlete in the World Cup seventh round follows a season of remarkable progress, elevating her ranking to fourth in the world.

In just her second year on the World Cup circuit, Peel has produced a third, a fifth and fourth placing to go with today’s victory, delivering a dream season.

Given that Peel is in the early stage of her development and yet to introduce high degree of difficulty jumps into her repertoire, her achievements this season have surprised many, including herself.

“It’s going to take a while for today to sink in because it is a big shock, Peel said.

“I would not have dreamed of this at the start of the season.

“I think this is now the start of my career and I can achieve a lot more, using jumps with a higher degree of difficulty.

“I think there is potential there, with hopefully a lot more to come.”

Peel set herself a goal of making two finals this year and if a podium finished occurred, that would be a bonus.

So far this season she has smashed those expectations and Peel hopes that this is the first step towards achieving the ultimate for her – a Winter Olympic Games medal.

“Today definitely helps towards achieving my long term goal of an Olympic medal. I have a few more years before the next Olympics so I will keep going down the same track and you never know,” Peel said.

However, she knows that fulfilling her ultimate goal will hinge heavily on introducing jumps with a higher degree of difficulty than she used today.
She performed an excellent double twisting double somersault in the qualifying round scoring 87 points to place second, and had to rely on a lower scoring single twisting double somersault in the top four shoot out to snatch victory after the number one qualifier Chinese skier Yu Yang crashed on the final jump of the event to slip and slipped to third.

Although China’s top two aerial skiers, Mengtao Xu and Shuang Cheng, who are one and two on the World Cup aerial standings list, were not competing today, Peel still has good reason to celebrate.

Teammates and World Cup rookies, Danielle Scott and Samantha Wells both scored personal best scores above 80 points for the first time in competition. Scott finished 7th while Wells was 8th. in Austria.

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia CEO Geoff Lipshut said that the result was extremely encouraging for Australia’s aerial skiing and praised the work done by AIS aerial skiing program head coach Cord Spero , program/ team manager Ashley Merkur and Barbara Meyer.

Lipshut, who pointed out that the Australian team will be bolstered by the return of Olympic Champion Lydia Lassila next season, said that all of the program and support staff at the VIS and AIS had been instrumental in the development of Peel, Scott and Wells.

Wells is ninth in world after Austria and Scott is close to breaking into the top 10 rankings.

The team will have a two day break before traveling to the Belarus capital Minsk for the next competition on February 25.

Renee McElduff had a solid showing in a Nor-Am competition at the Utah Olympic Park, finishing third, the second Nor-Am medal of her career.

On her first jump, a lay-tuck double somersault, Renee scored 65.91 points and with her back layout somersault, she scored the highest out of any performed on the day with 59.86 points.

Her efforts awarded her a total score of 125.77 with less than half a point separating second and third position. USA athletes Kiley McKinnon and Madison Olsen finished in first and second place.

Aerial skier Laura Peel narrowly missed capturing her second World Cup medal within three weeks when she fought out a nail-biting final in Deer Valley, USA.

The 22-year-old Mt Buller skier finished the high quality final in fourth place, just behind world number four Fanyu Kong from China in third spot, but one place higher than Ukrainian Olga Volkova, who is currently ranked third in the World and the reigning World Championship bronze medalist.

China’s Mengtao Xu was victorious, her countrywoman Cheng Shuang was second.

Fourth place earned the Australian Institute of Sport / Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder another 50 World Cup points, moving her up two places to sixth in the world, just seven points away from fifth.

All four members of Australia’s women’s aerial team qualified for the finals – Samantha Wells backed up her fifth in Calgary five days ago with a ninth today, Renee McElduff placed 11th and Danielle Scott finished 12th.

But clearly top honours among the Australians went to Peel, who made her presence in the night event felt right from the start.

She grabbed the sixth highest score in qualifying, then a very impressive win in the round of twelve with a high scoring Full Full at 91 points, followed by an almost perfect Lay Full at 86 points in the round of eight, which led to her appearance in the super-final, a one jump shoot-out between the top four athletes on the day.

“It was a big surprise getting into the top four,” Peel admitted.

“In making two top-four finals this year, I have now achieved my goal for the season, but I just want to keep going.”

Peel added that she is thrilled to have achieved a third, fourth and fifth place in the five World Cup events held so far this season.

“Last year I was just sneaking into some of the finals but this year it is nice to be up the top,” Peel said.

Today’s Deer Valley World Cup event is the half way stage of the season. Coaching staff have decided that their young and developing athletes will be rested for a week, missing the next round in China on February 11, but will reload when the series moves to Europe for the seventh round in Kreischberg, Austria.