Australians strong in early winter season
Dec 8, 2017 - 3:41 AM Three of Australia's leading Winter Olympians have displayed promising form as the lead-up campaign to Pyeonchang ramps up.In his first World Cup event of the season, world champion snowboarder Scotty James has qualified equal first for the halfpipe final at Copper Mountain in the United States.
James scored 97 on his best run - one point more than Japan's Raibu Katayama, while third-placed American star Shaun White registered 94.33.
The 23-year-old James will contest the final on Sunday morning (AEDT), while compatriot Kent Callister missed the decider after finishing 11th in his heat.
Figure skating pair Harley Windsor and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya have begun their junior world championship defence strongly by placing second in the short course segment in Japan.
The Australians skated a near-clean program to score 60.26, behind Russians Apollinariia Panfilova and Dimitry Rylov (60.81), continuing good form after gaining a berth for February's Olympics in September.
"We're pretty happy with it. Obviously there was a small mistake on the throw, but I think the quality of all our other elements was pretty good," Windsor said.
World champion mogul skier Britt Cox begins her northern hemisphere season this weekend in Finland, where fellow Australian medal prospect Matt Graham will compete in the men's event.
Australia's leading women's alpine skier Greta Small will compete in the World Cup event in Switzerland having made a modest return to competition last weekend from a long injury lay-off.
Australians in cross-country skiing, snowboard big air, skeleton, long track speed skating and ski cross will also compete in World Cup events this weekend.
Source: AAP
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