AIS / NSWIS moguls skier Sam Hall will benefit from strong preparation for next month’s World Championship in Voss, Norway, with a career best eighth place in the World Cup in Inawashiro, Japan, over the weekend.

For the 24-year-old from Perisher, Inawashiro marked his first World Cup final, improving on his previous best performance of 18th in Deer Valley this year.

Hall, on the comeback trail from injury, progressed to the 16-man final with the 10th best score in qualifying.

Unfortunately Hall’s first final score of 68.83 was not high enough to put him into the six-man super final, which was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, and followed by American Brady Wilson and Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau from Canada.

In the dual mogul event at Inawashiro, Hall was unable to replicate his performance in the single moguls, finishing 26th.

Australian teenager Matt Graham marked the start of his 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games countdown with a career best result in the World Cup mogul skiing and Olympic test event in Russia..

Competing on the same course that will be used in less than 12 months for the Games, the 18-year-old Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete finished in seventh place, lifting his ranking by nine places to 15th in the world.

The event was won by Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury, followed by American Patrick Deneen and Canadian Philippe Marquis in third.

The result will provide Graham with the confidence of knowing that he is closing the gap on the top echelon of World Cup mogul skiers.

However, Graham is not allowing himself to get too far ahead of himself.

He is the first to admit that the coming year needs to be packed with hard work and ongoing analysis if he is to make a big impression at next year’s Olympics.

Graham gave his Australian supporters in the Sochi crowd something additional to cheer for when he firstly progressed to the 16 man finals as the 11th best qualifier in a high quality field of 60 athletes.

In the final he put down a solid run which saw him holding fifth place with just two skiers to go, scoring 23.16 points, which almost qualified Graham for the six man super final.

Unfortunately for the Australian, one of the remaining skiers was Kingsbury, the number one ranked skier in the world, and the top qualifier, Russia’s Alexandr Smyshlyaev.

Despite being pushed out of the round to contest medals, Graham was highly pleased with his performance.

“A couple of weeks ago in Deer Valley I was 10th and now I’ve stepped it up to a seventh. It’s pretty exciting,” he said.

“I’ve been focusing on putting down clean runs each competition. It seems to be helping me a lot, and trying to improve the quality of my skiing and jumps, not focusing on time.

“Tonight I thought my jumps were pretty solid, especially in the qualification. I did two really nice airs.

“Skiing wasn’t great but it was clean enough to get me into the finals.

“In the finals I tried to clean everything up with my skiing and my jumps. It seemed to work out pretty well.”

Graham is excited by the prospect of competing on the same course at the Olympics but he knows better than many that snow conditions can vary wildly from one year to the next.

“I really like this course. It seems similar to what we get back home so that has given me a pretty big advantage,” he added.

“Going into 2014, I’m trying not to get too over-amped with this result because next year the conditions could be icy and not suit me at all.

“I try to adapt to all conditions and putting down good ones.”
AIS / NSWIS athlete Britt Cox finished a creditable 14th after also qualifying for the final.

Cox said she was happy with the way she skied tonight after struggling to find form in Sochi training sessions leading up to this event.

“I’m really happy to have skied well overall today and to have figured out the course for next year,” Cox said.

“The course has been really slushy and like the snow back in Australia in the spring. So I guess that is a positive although we need to be prepared to expect the unexpected next year. It could be bullet proof ice or it could be like this again.”

In other Australian women’s results, Taylah O’Neill finished 24th and AIS / NSWIS scholarship holder Nicole Parks was 32nd.

Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport mogul skier Sam Hall has placed the best of the Australian athletes in the dual mogul event in Deer Valley, USA.

Hall’s 18th place was a World Cup career best result for the Perisher based athlete since debuting in February 2009.

He was unlucky not to qualify for the final, missing the 16-man cut by just 0.7 of a point.

Australia's highest ranked mogul skiers, Britteny Cox and Matthew Graham, both 18-years-olds, finished 19th and 23rd respectively.

Cox’s desire to make her fourth final from six starts suffered from a lower than preferred score with turns, however, she can be pleased that her speed down the hill, one of the areas she has been working on this year, was impressive.

Fellow AIS / NSWIS skier Nicole Parks also had a tough day in 34th, while NSWIS athlete Taylah O’Neill did not finish.

Talented Australian teenagers Matt Graham and Britt Cox both recorded top 10 finishes in World Cup mogul skiing at Deer Valley, in the United States.

It was a World Cup personal best for Graham, who is competing in his first full season in the northern hemisphere series, as well as the first time this year that Australia was represented in the men’s and women’s finals at a World Cup level.

Graham’s 10th place in the massive field of 73 competitor saw the Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete’s world ranking jump 13 places to 23.

Cox also finished in 10th, her third top 10 after five rounds of competition.

Cox and Graham have the opportunity to back up these results and further build their seasons when they compete in dual moguls at Deer Valley in two days.

Graham finished behind Canadian duo Mikael Kingsbury and Alex Bilodeau in first and second, with American Patrick Deneen taking the other podium placing.

The women’s event was an all American podium finish, with Hannah Kearney, Heather McPhie and Eliza Outrim finishing in first, second and third places.

Cox, ranked 8th in the world, said that her impressive results this season are directly linked to becoming a more consistent skier.

“Today I had a really clean run but I have more in the tank for Saturday and I’m looking for another top 10,” Cox said.

“My skiing across the board is a lot more consistent so I have been able to improve each element of my skiing which has meant that I have been able to get into a few more finals and a few more top 10 finishes.

“This season is going well for me.”

Graham said that finishing 10th has reinforced his belief that he can challenge the world’s best mogul skiers.

“I am really happy with my result today,” he said.

“To achieve better results each week has been one of my main goals this season.

“I’ve been trying to improve all my tricks and I think today’s result showed that.”

“I have thought for a while that I can compete with these guys and today showed it.”

Other Australian results included Nicole Parks, 23rd, Sam Hall 31st, Rohan Chapman-Davies 32nd, James Matheson 34th and Brodie Summers 52nd.