Scott and Roth claim globes with runner-up spots in Almaty
Mar 19, 2023·Freestyle
Fresh off of the 2022/23 moguls World Cup finals extravaganza in Almaty (KAZ), Sunday saw another thrilling competition to go down, this time at the aerials venue at the Shymbulak Ski Resort, which wrapped up what was another successful FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup campaign.
Australia’s Laura Peel and Switzerland’s Pirmin Werner took big victories in the respective women’s and men’s events, with their fellow teammates Australia’s Danielle Scott and Switzerland’s Noe Roth clinching the season’s top World Cup honours by taking home the aerials crystal globes.
It was an interesting season for the aerials World Cup tour highlighted by 2023 World Championships in Georgia, while a dedicated group of experienced organisers brought to life as many as six World Cup competitions on three different continents, with the season’s final event wrapping up 2022/23 on a high in Kazakhstan.
In the women’s event it was Laura Peel, who led the 1-2 punch for Australia and dominated the competition, while showing her triple flips repertoire with a Lay-Tuck-Full in F1, just to back it up with a massive Lay-Full-Full in the super final to snag her second victory of the season.
Second place on the day went to Peel’s teammate Danielle Scott for her double Full-Full in the super final, while Canada’s Marion Thenault rounded out the women’s podium in third place with a Full double Full.
On the strength of her three victories and one runner-up spot in 2022/23, it was Danielle Scott who managed to outrun the competition and finish the season in first place with a total score of 462 points. After coming third in 2015 and then taking two runner-up places in 2016 and 2017, the Aussie skier finally topped the overall aerials ranking and snagged her career’s first World Cup title.
With a huge win on Sunday, Peel finished the season in second place overall with 362 points, while Thenault completed the women’s podium in third with 350 points.
Over on the men’s side it was Pirmin Werner, who led the 1-2 punch by the Swiss aerials team alongside his teammate and friend Noe Roth, while claiming victory in a big way.
Dropping in the big final, Werner pulled off an impressive double Full-Full-Full, and while none of other five competitors managed to beat his score, the 2019/20 rookie of the year wrapped up the season on a high.
No doubt Kazakhstan is a pretty special place for Werner. Back in 2020 he scored his first World Cup top-3 in Qi Qaragai and a year later in 2021 he got his first victory here at the venue in Almaty.
Werner’s teammate Noe Roth wrapped up the day in second place after landing his double Full-Full-Full in the super final, while Canada’s Emile Nadeau claimed his career’s first World Cup top-3 finish, rounding out the men’s podium in third place. Similarly to Roth, also Nadeau performed a double Full-Full-Full in the big final.
With a runner-up spot on Sunday, three more second places and one win throughout the 2022/23 season, Roth clinched the aerials crystal globe and his career’s second World Cup title, finishing the season with a total of 429 points.
Coming into the final event as a World Cup leader, Dmytro Kotovskyi couldn’t quite stand up to the occasion this time and after failing to qualify into finals, he had to settle for second place overall with 371 points.
With a victory in Almaty, Werner jumped into third place in the aerials standing, finishing the season with 302 points.
As the 2022/23 freestyle season wrapped up in Almaty, China’s Chen Shuo and Chen Meiting were awarded the Rookie of the Year awards, while USA topped the Nations Cups standing.
With the World Cup in the books now, it’s time to take a closer look at the young generation of freestyle skiers that will take their chances to compete for medals in just a couple of days from now at the Junior World Championships in Chiesa in Valmalenco (ITA - moguls) and Obertauern (AUT - aerials) held on March 21-25 and 29-31, respectively.
QUICK LINKS
Almaty World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
