Scott and Kotovskyi shine under blue skies in St. Moritz
Mar 05, 2023·Freestyle
It was a picture-perfect day of high-flying action Sunday in St. Moritz, where the first FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup event on Swiss soil in over 15 years went down in a huge way, with Danielle Scott leading a 1-2 punch for the Australian team in the women’s event, and Ukraine’s Dmytro Kotovskyi going all-out for top spot on the men’s side.
It was another sunny day at the future aerials venue of the Engadin 2025 World Championships, and with a stacked-field of athletes on hand, perfect weather and snow conditions and some beautiful views over the iconic town of St. Moritz, Sunday’s competition saw plenty of technical and well-executed jumps and without a doubt was a highly entertaining one to watch.
In the women’s competition it was Danielle Scott who stormed to her third World Cup win of the season while leading a big day for the “Flying Kangaroos” team as her teammate Laura Peel finished just behind Scott in second.
Scott, who was fresh off straight of her silver medal performance at the Bakuriani 2023 World Championships, opted out to play it rather safe on Sunday. With her biggest rival in a battle for the aerials World Cup crystal globe Marion Thenault (CAN) failing to qualify into finals, it looked like Scott played a little strategy game and decided to stick to her double flips and simply secure some precious World Cup points ahead of the season’s final competition in Almaty (KAZ) in just two weeks from now.
As it turned out, however, her double Full-Full in the super final was simply the best jump once we were down to only top-6 athletes, as Scott was essentially flawless in air, form and landing, and she finished the event with a final score of 98.70 points to add another huge victory and additional 100 points to her totals on the aerials World Cup rankings.
With Thenault wrapping up the competition in St. Moritz in 16th place, Scott essentially secured the 2022/23 aerials World Cup title. The Aussie athlete needs only nine point at the final competition in Almaty, which directly translates into a 22nd spot, and taking into account that we only had 19 women competing here in St. Moritz on Sunday, it’s pretty safe to call Danielle Scott your 2022/23 aerials World Cup champion already.
Second place on the day went to Peel, who was the only female athlete on Sunday performing triple flips in women’s competition. Peel led the charge after F1 after stomping a beautiful Lay-Tuck-Full, and in the super final she decided to step things up even further with a Lay-Full-Full. This time, however, Peel couldn’t quite stick her landing perfectly and her 94.65 points was only enough for the second spot on the day.
The World Championships gold medallist from Bakuriani 2023, Kong Fanyu (CHN) rounded out the women’s podium in third place, for her third top-3 spot in 2022/23, meaning that the Chinese athlete secured a spot on the podium in every competition she entered since her delayed start into 2022/23 World Cup campaign in Deer Valley. In St. Moritz Kong finished the competition with a score of 92.00 points for her double Full-Full.
Over on the men’s side of things it was probably one of the most exciting super finals we’ve seen in recent history with all three top contenders for the aerials World Cup globes throwing it down big time in this penultimate event of the season.
At the end of the day it was Dmitro Kotovskyi, who managed to repeat his extraordinary performance from a month ago in Deer Valley, stomping his Full-triple Full-Full to score 136.76 points and grab his second win and his fourth World Cup top-3 finish in 2022/23 World Cup season.
After landing his “Hurricane” jump in the superfinal, Kotovskyi fell down hard after catching an edge of his ski while coming into transition. The judges however ruled that he stayed on his skis for long enough after his landing that the crash did not factor into his score, so some bumps and bruises would be the only negative result of the crash as Kotovskyi received a score 137.76 points for the win.
As well, Kotovskyi took over top spot in the men’s aerials World Cup ranking, overtaking Switzerland’s Noe Roth by just two points with only one more competition left in the season.
The afore-mentioned Roth finished the competition on home soil in second place with a score of 133.11 points for his double Full double Full-Full, the most difficult trick he pulled off so far in 2022/23, also earning his fifth top-3 finish this season.
Third place on the day went to Christopher Lillis, who came with the most technically difficult trick on the day, stomping a double Full-Full double Full, a trick we haven’t seen being performed in competition since the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. However, Lillis couldn’t quite match the form or landing of those jumps from Roth and Kotovskyi, and his final score of 128.00 points put him in third spot on Sunday and his second World Cup podium this campaign.
The FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup continues in two weeks from now, with the final event of the season slated to go down in Almaty (KAZ) on Sunday, March 19.
QUICK LINKS:
St.Moritz Engadin World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
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