Mogul Course in Suomu

Prior to the first World Cup events, Sammy and I headed from Ruka to Suomu for a warm up Europa Cup event. Aiming to mainly to clear out the cobwebs and gain experience, the event was successful. I was finished in 8th place in a finals that was dominated by world cup guys who were there for the same reason. Sammy took a while to warm up and finished 35th in the first event, and 21st the second day.

Sammy in Suomu, sportin' a pretty half-a*se moe

After the event, we were back in Ruka training again for a few days before moving over to Suomu. The last days of training were productive and the course was still world class.

Ruka Course

In Suomu, all 5 of us (Dale, Des, Pete, Sam, Me) squeezed into the same Apartment. We decked it out pretty well though, with our usual entertainment set-up. Pete was in his element cooking us all omelettes every morning, and pizza slices in the afternoon. Pressure is on for the next physio to top that.

Instead of the originally planned single event, there was a second event re-schedualed to make up for the event cancellation in Meribel. In the first event on Friday, I skied a good run in qualifications to qualify in 10th position for the final. It was a good feeling to be back in the finals again, and I was so happy that my body was finally cooperating with me. Dale put his usual flawless run down to also qualify for the finals in 4th position. Sam had difficulty with his 720 on the top air and crashed out.

In the finals I skied probably the best run I have put down in competition before. I was really stoked on my performance and at that stage, results weren't really in my mind. However, I ended up finishing in 9th position, the second highest finish of my career. Dale put down the same run again, and remained in 4th place. The event was won by the Swede, Jesper Bjornlund. He deserved the win, and I am so happy everything is coming together at the right time for him.

Me, Competing in the Qualifiers

On Saturday, we had to back it up early after only finishing finals at 10pm the night before. I had a good qualifying run, similar to the day before but with a lower quality D-spin on the bottom air. Unfortunately it didn't judge well, and I missed a place in the final by less half a point and finished a dissapointing 26th.
Sam had a better run, a clean top to bottom which placed him in 44th and has given him confidence going to the next event. Dale, again backed it up with no mistakes and unique precision to finish in 5th place in the finals. His comeback a success.

After the events, we had the after party which blended into our 5am departure to the airport. After a long day of flying, me and Sam arrived in Park City last night, where we will spend the next 2 or so weeks preparing for the coming events in Calgary (First week of January).

Here, I have uploaded some training footage from Ruka, and my finals run from Suomu.

tags: olympic, problog, ramone, cooper, skiing, moguls, suomo, finland

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