Coming off the back of a successful World Championships, NSWIS Mogul athletes Sam Hall and Brodie Summers have had a difficult weekend competing in the World Cup at Are, Sweden.

On day one, Hall placed 40th and Summers 50th. Unfortunately the disappointing results continued on day two, with Summers finishing in 44th and Hall in 57th.

On both days both athletes had trouble in the middle section of the course, effectively ending any chance of making the finals.

NSWIS mogul skiing Head Coach Peter Topalovic commented after race:

"The long and successful week at the World Championships prior to Are event really took a toll on the athletes both mentally and physically."

"Both boys were skiing well in training on the event days, but made mistakes in the middle section on both competition days."

"We now head to Sierra Nevada, Spain, for the final World Cup of the year where I am confident both skiers will improve."

The AIS mogul skiing program elected to skip the final two World Cup events to focus on commencing strength and conditioning for the Olympic year.

Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport athlete Sam Hall took another step towards fulfilling his Olympic dream when he finished with a personal best sixth place in the World Freestyle Ski Championships dual moguls event in Voss, Norway.

The 24-year-old Hall won his first dual against Sweden’s Ludvig Fjallstroim, after qualifying in eighth, and advanced to the quarter finals.

Unfortunately for the Australian, he was then drawn against the eventual winner Alex Bilodeau, who brought Hall’s day to an end.

Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, was second and American Patrick Deneen took third place.

However, as the best finishing Australian, coupled with strong performances in the last two weeks, Hall can be highly pleased with the result.

Given that Hall missed last season with a knee injury, he has made significant progress towards living up to the promise he showed several years ago.

It was only a little more than 10 days ago that Hall achieved a then World Cup personal best, an eighth place in Japan, which has now been improved in a field boasting every current top class moguls skier in the world.

Hall was one of four Australian squad members who progressed to the finals.

NSWIS skier Brodie Summers extended his “purple patch” by making the finals with a very strong fourth place, but unlike Hall, he was unable to win his quarter final dual against Fin Jimi Salonen and ended the day in a very impressive ninth place.

In the women’s draw, teenager Britt Cox and fellow AIS / NSWIS scholarship holder Nicole Parks both made the finals to finish in eighth and 16th. Cox won her first dual but went down to the eventual silver medallist Miki Ito in a quarter final.

The women’s event was won by Canadian Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, with American Hannah Kearney in third.

The only member of the Australian squad not to make finals was Matt Graham.

Following an outstanding fourth place in the first of the two moguls events in Voss, Graham made an uncharacteristic mistake going into a jump during the qualification session for finals. The error ended his chances of recording another top finish.

AIS moguls skiing program head coach Steve Desovich labeled the day as “a very solid result and we’d always take a day like today.”

“Sam has worked very hard to get back from injury but I would also like to acknowledge the great work by OWIA/NSWIS sport scientist John Marsden and Coach Peter Topalovic from NSWIS who have worked closely with Sam and have played a huge part in his return.”

With Hall and Summers continuing their northern hemisphere campaign in Sweden and Spain after the World Championships while the other squad members return to Australia to begin their year of preparation for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia, Desovich is able to reflect very positively on the season.

“This season can be described as very good,” Desovich said.

“The highlights were Britt Cox’s third place in Lake Placid and her fourth in Kreischberg, Austria, along with her 10th place here in the World Championships, and if you combine all of those, that’s a solid performance.

“Also Matt Graham’s seventh place in Sochi and the fourth place here, they’re simply fantastic results as very often the youngest finalist in the men’s competition.”

Eighteen-year-old Australian Matt Graham has achieved the first major milestone in a burgeoning career which has significantly improved since finishing secondary school last year to become a full time skier when he finished fourth with a P.B in the mogul skiing event at the World Freestyle Ski Championships in Voss, Norway.

The Australian Institute of Sport / NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder delivered the run of his career, prompting high praise from AIS moguls ski program head coach Steve Desovich, who described Graham’s result as a “landmark performance.”

Graham, one of three Australian men in the top 11 places, and the youngest of the top 18 athletes in the finals, has always believed that with time he can challenge the world’s best and showed why he has held that self-belief.

While Graham held the limelight on a bright day for Australian moguls skiing, 20-year-old NSWIS athlete Brodie Summers, who has competed in only three World Cup events, surprised many by finishing seventh on the world’s second biggest stage.

Summers’ brilliant result eclipsed his best World Cup result of 32nd, which was recorded in January 2011.

AIS / NSWIS skier Sam Hall finished in 11th, after qualifying in sixth place, to become the third Australian man to record an impressive result.

In the women’s draw teenager Britt Cox lived up to expectations with a top 10 place, a career best at World Championships, while fellow AIS / NSW athlete Nicole Parks was 18th, having made the cut in qualifying and in to the finals.

The men’s title was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, who captured his first World Championships crown, ahead of Alex Bilodeau while American Patrick Deneen was third.

American Hannah Kearney won the women’s title, with Japan’s Miki Ito second and Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe third.

After posting results of 27th, 38th and 25th in the first three events of the season, Graham and Desovich devised a simple plan that has blossomed into the teenager’s proudest moment, in the year’s biggest event, which is surpassed in prestige only by the Winter Olympic Games.

Competing in his first full northern hemisphere winter since finishing secondary school last year, Graham realised that an old sporting cliché, of taking it one day at a time, was the key to living up to his potential and kick-starting his promising career.

Desovich said that he is thrilled by Graham’s result and congratulated him on his work ethic and the way he has relentlessly adopted their plan.

“In December he had to dig himself out by the bootstraps,” Desovich said.

“At that point we said to him ‘all you can do is go out and ski the next day and take it one day at a time, one run at a time, one gym session at a time’.

“He was able to claw his way back. He had a 25th, which doesn’t sound like much, but it was a good run. In Calgary he gets a 19th, so he takes another little step. Then in Deer Valley he gets that 10th, in Sochi he gets a 7th and it led all the way to this point.

“He’s slowly gotten himself into a good groove. “

Graham showed right from the start that these Championships would provide the result he was looking for when he recorded a top 10 qualification score, before finishing in sixth place in the first final, largely because of a strong turns score, which was the second best in the high quality field.

Graham’s first final score enabled him to progress to the six-man super final, a career first, guaranteeing him his best ever result even before this stage of the competition started.

He moved to fourth on the final run, a brilliant result for the teenager.