Nineteen-year-old Australian moguls skier Nicole Parks scored her best World Cup result and first finals appearance in Calgary, Canada, today.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete finished 15th, after qualifying for the final in 16th place.

The fifth round of the World Cup was won by American Hannah Kearney, who is unbeaten in five World Cup appearances this season and has a vice-grip on the title. Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe was second while USA’s KC Oakley was third.

With the World Cup season drawing to a close, Parks has emerged as an athlete with real potential, having finished in the top 20 in each of her events this season, and was unlucky not to have been in several finals before today.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich said that he was pleased with the performances of Parks and teenage teammates Britt Cox and Matt Graham, who both finished 20th today, which was a personal best for Graham. .

“We know what each athlete needs to work on to take the next step but this year has been very encouraging,” Desovich said.

“Today I was really pleased for Nicole because she has gone close to making the finals several times this year.”

The AIS program now head to Deer Valley, UT, USA, site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to compete in the final North American World Cup of the season.

Australian teenagers Britt Cox, Nicole Parks and Matt Graham are continuing to gain valuable international experience across the 2011/2012 northern hemisphere season.

The trio competed in the fourth round World Cup event at Lake Placid, Utah, in the United States today, finishing a little lower in the results than they would have like but pleased that their developing careers are improving at a steady rate.

Cox was the best performer of the three Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holders finishing in 18th place, while Parks was 19th and Graham in 26th place.

The result kept Cox sitting within the world’s top 20 mogul athletes, currently 19th on the World Cup list.

American Hannah Kearney made it a clean sweep this season by taking out her fourth consecutive World Cup event, underlining the Olympic gold medalist absolute superiority this season. Other podium positions were Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe second and Czech Nikola Sudova in third.

The men’s event saw Canadian Mikael Kingsbury equal Kearney’s dominance with his fourth consecutive win for the season. American Patrick Deneen was second and Canadian Philippe Marquis was third.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovich said that to enable the three Australian teenagers to take the next step towards Sochi 2014, they each needed to implement more “aggression” and “excitement” into their skiing.

“Their skiing today was clean but in order to progress further they need to improve on their speed component,” Desovich said.
We will work on this for next week but achieving this is a long term goal.”

The team will now travel to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for the next round of the World Cup tour.

Teenager Britt Cox took another significant step towards becoming a world class moguls skier when she achieved another personal best in Mont Gabriel, Canada.

Competing in the dual moguls event at Mont Gabriel, the 17-year-old Perisher skier recorded her career best qualifying and overall results in World Cup competition.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder finished in 12th place overall after qualifying ninth.

It was only a month ago in the first World Cup moguls event of the season in Ruka, Finland, that Cox showed just how much she has improved in the last six months by taking 14th place, which was, at that time, her personal best.

Immediately after Ruka she won two International Ski Federation events in the USA and finished third in another.

Today’s event in -18 degrees centigrade was won by American Olympic gold medalist Hannah Kearney, her third World Cup victory this season, followed by Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Russian Ekaterina Stolyarova in third.

AIS mogul skiing program head coach Steve Desovic said that Cox has worked tirelessly on two areas – jumps and speed.

“She has been in two World Cup events so far this season and she has been in the finals of both, which is a very solid performance,” Desovic said.

“She is showing constant improvement. She is fantastic and I have never met anyone like her. She has done a really great job. We are thrilled with her work ethic.”

In addition to Cox’s relentless determination to reach the top, Desovich praised the contributions made by AIS mogul and aerial coach Jerry Grossi and NSWIS winter sports senior sport scientist John Marsden who have worked with Cox to provide changes to her jumping strength and technique as well as her speed down the mountain.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS athlete, 17-year-old Matt Graham skied impressively to record a creditable 23rd in qualifying at Mont Gabriel but it was not enough to make the finals, while Nicole Parks finished her qualifying run in 17th place, matching her previous personal best result from last season missing out by just one place on the dual mogul final.

The moguls team heads to Lake Placid in the United States on January 19 to compete in the next round of the World Cup circuit.