It was a tough night for the Aussies on the aerial hill at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park, with intermittent light tail winds and the thermometer dropping below -30 degrees.

Training before the final saw almost all athletes struggle to find their feet, but on home territory the clear standout was Xu Mengtao who consistently landed her triple-twisting triple-back to eventually claim the gold.

Laura Peel and Danielle Scott both qualified for finals. Danielle was unable land either of her jumps in the finals, ending her Olympic campaign in tenth position. Laura scraped in a landing on her second jump to qualify for the super final in fourth position with 100.02 points. In the super final she crashed, ending the night in fifth position.

The debutant Gabi Ash, whose degree of difficult was the only thing stopping her from qualifying, performed strongly and has put herself in a great position for the future.

Laura, having performed strongly in the lead up to these Games, was extremely disappointed with her performance.

"Yep, I was pretty disappointed, and I know I can jump better than I did tonight," Laura said.

"I wish I would have done that.

"I don't really think that I have any excuses, I knew it was a big jump I had to stretch a little bit earlier. I waited until the last flip and that was a little bit too late and I couldn't put it to my feet.

"That jump is well with in my range, I can do it really nicely. At the last comp I scored 118 points on it, so I can do it a lot better than I did it tonight."

Danielle was equally disappointed. She pushed it really hard but was unable to find her feet on the night.

"It's brutal out here. I tried to give it my everything, but it's a lot of pressure. I really tried to put it all on the line but I was just feeling a little off, I guess you know it was just not what I wanted."

When talking about her future she spoke about being able to train at home and the convenience of Brisbane's Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre.

"With the water ramp in Australia now it makes our life a lot easier. We can now actually spend some time on home soil."

23-year-old Gabi Ash put down two solid jumps in qualifying, but didn't make it into the finals due to having a lower degree of difficult than the rest of the field.

"[I was] pretty excited I got two jumps to my feet, and they were clean so I'm really happy. I could have done the first one a bit better but all in all, I'm pretty happy," Gabi said.

"The main thing that I've learned through this experience is just to enjoy the sport that I'm doing here. Everyone has been great, so supportive and helpful. It's just been a really fun experience all around."

She is also looking forward to getting home and training in Brisbane.

"It's awesome to have a training facility that is on home soil that we can easily get too and maybe be able to study, see family and friends. There's a lot more of a work-life balance."

olympics.com.au
Jonathan Sweet

Laura Peel and Danielle Scott are currently ranked third and fourth in the world respectively, yesterday they wasted no time pulling out big tricks and establishing strong foundations as they build up to the aerials competition.
 
Laura completed a triple twisting triple backflip (or full, full, full) in training yesterday, while Danielle got up to speed and is poised to move onto the triple kicker jump tomorrow.

Gabi Ash is building and continues to increase her degree of difficulty towards the competition.

Laura took some time out to talk about her first day jumping triples on the Beijing site.

"I felt good. First day on the triples today so just building up," she said.

"Really stoked with my training session and we will come out and do more tomorrow."

Laura spoke about getting up to speed with triples relatively early in her training program.

"I think you've got to show people what you've got at this point in time. I think if you want to be as successful as you can be, it's best to stay focused on yourself and just get your jumps done."

Danielle is finding her rhythm on the new site and beginning to dial in some strong foundations as she moves through to her bigger tricks.

"Yeah, day two on the site today so it's still a bit of an adjustment phase getting used to a new site," Danielle said.

"But I'm happy with the way my jumps are going."

"I'll start doing triples tomorrow, [I was] just dialling in the doubles today and yesterday. Each day is a new day to figure out what we are doing."

Danielle was hopeful when asked if she will perform the triple twisting, triple backflip she showed at Deer Valley, USA.

"Yeah that's the plan. Depending on all the conditions here, things can change pretty quickly here but yeah, that is the plan."

Gabi, making her Olympic debut, felt comfortable with the state-of-the-art jump site at Genting Snow Park.

"It's day two, so still getting used to the site a bit but the site is really great with the wind wall. The jumps are the same we've had all season, so just getting used to it.

"[Training] was pretty easy, that was not my degree of difficulty. It's kind of more getting used to it and I'll probably do my degree of difficulty tomorrow."

Gabi's sister Sophie Ash competed in the women's moguls on Sunday night and was proud of her sister's achievements.

"It was nice to go out and watch her event, she did three really nice runs. I think she should be proud."

The women's aerial skiing qualifying will get the girls underway on Sunday 13 February at 10pm AEDT.

olympics.com.au
Jonathan Sweet