The winter wonderland weekend continued with a flurry of stellar results in the Aerial Skiing World Cup in China today, just a day after Danielle Scott claimed Silver in the opening event of the season.

The Flying Kangaroos, led once again by the in-form Scott, added three more medals to their weekend tally, with Scott winning the one-jump World Cup event, while Samantha Wells snared Bronze.

The qualifcation seeding ahead of the team event acted as a perfect opportunity to battle for World Cup points as the individuals strove to push themselves up the world rankings as well as improving their team's standing.

Scott took the full 100 points from the competition, before the two girls combined with Dave Morris, fresh off a 5th place effort in the one-jump event, to grab another Bronze medal in the Team World Cup, the first medal of any kind obtained by an Australian Aerial Skiing team.

After Gold and Bronze with Belle Brockhoff and Alex Pullin, the VIS athletes have capped off what has been the most successful December on record for Australian winter athletes with the third World Cup win of the season to go along with a collection of podium finishes.

Scott’s second career win today put her at the top of the pile in the World, something she said was extremely special to her and credited her support team.

“I’ve been so close to that yellow bib for a long time so it feels great to finally wear it and land on top of the podium,” she said.

"I feel pretty good about the execution of my jumps and have loved every second of working with Joe (Davies) and Jeff (Bean) on the hill."

"Barbara and Kate have also been excellent, it was a fantastic team effort out there."

“I felt really good about the execution of my jumps and have loved every second up here. To finish the day with Bronze in the team event as well just made this time one to remember,” she said.

​It was a career defining weekend for Wells too, who bounced back after a disappointing individual performance yesterday to hit a personal best score to make her second career podium.

“My aim was just to carry out some of the things we worked on in pre-season camp which was my take-off and my landing technique,” said Wells.

“Even though I didn’t start well on paper, I was happy to progress my jumps over the course of the four days, and landed the dFF for the first time in competition so it was a really satisfying and enjoyable time.”

Dave Morris faced a tougher task but pushed on for 5th, before joining up with the girls to go one better than last year’s 4th place team finish in Beijing to claim the Bronze.

“Unfortunately I was fairly unprepared for competitions this weekend with injury, so today was a much-needed confidence boost after a disappointing result in the first World Cup,” Morris said.

“Last year the team came 4th, being at a disadvantage having two girls and one boy, instead of two boys and one girl. Sam and Dani really put down some great jumps, which combined with mine to secure a spot in the top three, pushing out what seemed like some much stronger teams, but quality jumps and good landings pulled through and we have Australia’s first team medal."

"I’m very proud of everyone’s efforts today."

World Champion Laura Peel is yet to find her best form after qualifying strongly on day one in fourth place, followed by two 12th places but has her eyes set for bigger things in 2017.

The team will break over Christmas but will re-group again for the next event on January 13th at Lake Placid, USA.

Saturday ended how it began, with Australians on the podium, when Danielle Scott won silver in the Ladies Aerials World Cup in the season opening event in Beida Lake, China.

Following in the golden and bronze paths set by Belle Brockhoff and Champy Pullin in Snowboard Cross this morning, Danielle finished off the day by delivering a full set of World Cup medals as she sailed through the Aerials qualifying, Final 1 and Final 2 medal-decider.

Danielle’s consistency, majestic height and excellent air form on all three jumps garnered the result she was after and one which she and OWIA/VIS coaches Jeff Bean and Joe Davies planned for.

“It was a great day out there and I’m happy with how my jumping is progressing for the start of the season,” Danielle said after the event.

“It was a bit tricky with some change in conditions for the final jump but I was really pleased to have done some clean jumps throughout the rounds.”

In training, Danielle had concentrated on making the jumps “bigger and better” by working on the doubles to a higher-degree of difficulty.

“I love a healthy, competitive environment and being in the rhythm of performing.”

And it showed.

Conditions in Beida Lake could have been as harsh as minus 36 degrees, but the weather was kind to all the field, despite some changes before the medal round.

“The sun dramatically moved off the jumps so the speeds were changing and lighting quite different,” the 2016 World Silver medallist said.  

“It’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before but it always makes it tricky when you are trying to max out the final jump.”

“It feels really good to have executed a plan and degree of difficulty but I know there is room for improvement.”

Returning 2015 World Champion Laura Peel made her debut event after a long rehab and easily made it through the qualifying with a high-quality gorgeous Back Full Full, scoring an identical 86.31 to Danielle Scott that was only broken by .10 for Air.

In Final 1, the same jump didn’t go quite as well as qualifying and did not land as well as she would have liked, scoring 59.53 and putting her out of Final 2.

“I had a solid day of training and performed well in the qualification. Unfortunately things didn’t come together in the finals, but I’m happy to back out there competing in World Cups,” Laura said.

Samantha Wells was placed 14th in Qualifying with 63.63 points.

The gold went to Mengtao Xu from China with 94.47 points, silver to Danielle Scott on 87.06 and bronze to 17-year-old Russian Liubov Nikitina on 82.53.

In the Men’s qualifying, injury and limited training got the better of Dave Morris who had a day he will put down to experience, with a low-scoring jump that ended his season opener earlier than planned.  

The Chinese resort will host a second World Cup aerial event tomorrow (Sunday 18 December) with an individual one-jump World Cup, which will also count as the qualification round for a mixed team event in the afternoon.  

China has qualified first, second and fifth on home ground this afternoon for the opening Aerial Skiing World Cup in Beida Lake and the good news for the Flying Kangaroos Australian Aerial Ski Team is Danielle Scott and Laura Peel have made the Final in third and fourth.

Scott and Peel both scored 86.31 after successfully landing double back somersaults with two twists. The tie was broken in Scott’s favour by the Air component  (5.50 to 5.40).

The Beida Lake World Cup in China marks Peel’s return to competition after recovering from ankle surgery. After 620 days off the snow, she was looking for a confident return and “landing forwards on her feet”.

US World Champion Ashley Caldwell snuck into the Final in 12th place after going for the more difficult triple twist, scoring 70.47.

Samantha Wells placed 14th and will not advance to this afternoon’s Final, which begins at 4.30pm (AEDT). To watch the event live, switch on to Eurosport.

Men’s qualifying with Dave Morris begins in just under an hour.  

Photo: Danielle Scott (Instagram) 

Bigger and better is the overall goal for the Freestyle Aerials team this weekend for the first World Cup in Beida Lake, China as the season gets underway with the opening event of seven competitions at six different venues spread out across Asia, Europe and North America.

Australia’s team of Dave Morris, Danielle Scott, Laura Peel and Samantha Wells finished two weeks  training in Ruka, Finland, which included hours jumping on snow daily, before heading to China for back-to-back competitions on December 17 and 18, 2016, at China’s Beida Lake resort. 

Danielle Scott, who finished with a series overall second place last season and third the previous season says she has, “one step to go”.

“We’ve been making the jumps bigger and better. We’re just going to work with doubles at the highest degree of difficulty, maxing out the scores,” Danielle said.

“Beida Lake is the first event and I want nice, clean jumps every round.”

With a start list that could number up to 35 women, going clean and making the final 12 will be a huge confidence booster for the Flying Kangaroos, none more so than 2015 World Champion, Laura Peel who is returning to competition after recovering from ankle surgery last season.

“Until Finland, it had been 620 days since I jumped on snow. It was a long rehab and the ankle handles snow better than the impact of the water jump,” a happy Laura said from China yesterday.
 
“I’ve come back well. It was hard work getting back physically – now it’s also about mentally getting in the swing of things. I’m excited about the weekend.”

Asked about her goal for the weekend, the experienced World Champion was straight to the point; “Land facing forwards.”

Last year was a breakthrough season for Newcastle’s Samantha Wells, who made her first podium with a silver in Deer Valley, USA and as far as Sam is concerned, the only way is up.

“Last year I became more consistent but there were areas of my jumping that weren’t receiving the scores. I spent the Australian winter working on the height and landing of my jumping. My form  scores well, but I need more air,” Samantha explained.

“Carrying the basic elements of a quality jump with an increasing degree of difficulty is what I’m after. For me, it’s about focussing on executing the improvements that have been made.”

​Sochi Silver medallist Dave Morris is as candid as ever when asked about his preparation going into Beida Lake.

“Not great. Worst preparation ever. Ruka started well then I suffered a torn quad muscle, which affected my knee resulting in nearly two weeks off. I haven’t done any triples at all,” he said.

A philosophical Morris said the injury is not overly serious but has suppressed his natural ‘go-for-it’ approach to every event.

“In my career, I’ve got away without any major injuries. It’s my turn I guess.”

“I’d like to start the year off with a bang and do big tricks but realistically I have to get through these two events (in Beida Lake) with nice, safe doubles and build up through the season.”

“It’s a training event and we’ve solidified what I’ve got already. I can’t throw my body around,” the 32-year-old.

There will be more coming, not least because Morris will not be satisfied until he goes for five twists  in an event.

“From earlier this year, I started really practising doing five twists on the snow to potentially do it at an Olympics.  Everyone in the Super Final had five except me.”

“We’ve trained five properly this year and I’d like that in my back pocket.”

Morris took a year off after Sochi and says, “I would not be happy with my career if I didn’t do five twists and three flips – or at least try it.”

The competition for the podium will be stiff as the Chinese look to reassert their team having dipped from the high placements in the 2010-14 period to only one man in the top ten last season and one woman in the top five.  

The top stories of last season were an Eastern European surge on the men’s side, and the second-straight US crystal globe on the ladies’. The Russian team is also one to watch out for.

Oleksandr Abramenko, a decade-long tour veteran found a newfound consistency to capture the first-ever Freestyle crystal globe of any kind for Ukraine, whilst American Ashley Caldwell improved from second-best in 2014/15 to win last season’s crystal globe - the second in a row for the young USA ladies team.

With seven podiums in 10 events over the past two seasons and a penchant for performing the most difficult jumps, Caldwell is the one to chase, but not without competition from Danielle Scott, who has been pipped by the American on the podium the past two years. 

While less explosive than Caldwell, Scott’s clean technique and consistency puts her in a position to podium at nearly every event she enters. In the five seasons on the World Cup, Scott has only finished outside of the top-10 seven times. 

From Beida Lake, the Aerials World Cup hits its US swing, first at historic Lake Placid just after the holidays and then on to the classic showdown in Deer Valley in early February. 

As with all of the events under the FIS Freestyle Skiing umbrella (except for big air), the season truly ends for the top aerials athletes in the world at the 2017 Freestyle World Ski Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, in March.

With the first World Cup of the season two weeks away, Danielle Scott has showed she is well placed for a strong season following back-to-back Europa Cup victories in Ruka, Finland.
 
The wins were achieved on the back of four well-executed competition jumps, with her Day Two performance particularly impressive with a two jump score of 187.96, almost 20 points clear of second place.
 
Scott was joined on the podium on Day One by her Flying Kangaroos teammate and current World Champion, Laura Peel, who finished third in her first event since March 2015. In the second event Laura finished in sixth place.
 
Samantha Wells had two top ten results, with a fifth place Day Two performance being the highlight.
 
Olympic Silver Medallist David Morris elected not to compete, as he manages some minor injuries early in the season.
 
Flying Kangaroo development athletes Britt George, Abbey Willcox and Harrison Tulberg all made their competition debuts coached by Olympian and Victorian Institute of Sport Technical Coach Bree Munro. The three athletes all had near perfect scores in their back layout and back tuck single backflip jumps. Britt George was the highest placed with a 14th finish in the second event.
 
The opening World Cup event will take place in Beida Lake, China, on December 16-17.

PHOTO: Danielle Scott (middle) and Laura Peel (right) on the podium in Finland