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Omischl puts pedal to the medal

North Bay's Steve Omischl has won another medal on the World Cup circuit.
North Bay's Steve Omischl has won another medal on the World Cup circuit.

Details are included in the following news release issued Saturday by the Canadian Free Style Ski Association:

Omischl extends medal-winning streak

Park City, Utah
The Canadian aerialists extended their medal-winning streak on the Suzuki Freestyle FIS World Cup circuit to eight events, as Steve Omischl of North Bay, Ont., captured a silver medal Saturday.

For the second straight week, Omischl was second to a high-scoring winner.

This time the gold medallist was Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus, as last week's winner, 2002 Olympic aerials champion Ales Valenta of the Czech Republic, placed 17th to miss the 12-skier final.

"It's hard work paying off, plain and simple," said Omischl, 25.

As for his second straight silver medal, he added, "What can you do? I'll take it with the way Dmitri performed today."

Dashinski and Omischl went 1-2 in the qualification round, and they stayed that way after their second jumps, with respective scores of 251.15 and 242.35.

Several jumpers became concerned when calm conditions turned into blowing snow just before the final, meaning approach speeds would have to be quickly adjusted. However, it stopped snowing shortly afterwards, as Omischl went on to capture his sixth medal in eight World Cup starts this season.

The bronze medal went to Jeret Peterson of the United States in 242.30, while Ryan Blais of Grande Prairie, Alta., was fifth in 226.77 to continue a season that has featured four top-five finishes. The other Canadian finalists were Cord Spero of Grande Prairie in 10th and Warren Shouldice of Calgary in 12th.

Omischl, meanwhile, kept the leader's bib for leading the overall standings. Dashinshi, who has two World Cup wins this year, sits a distant second overall.

The Canadian men now have at least one aerials medal in eight World Cups this year, while their female counterparts had chipped in three medals, including a silver by Veronika Bauer of Toronto last week in Fernie, B.C.

Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., was the only Canadian to reach the women's aerials final Saturday. She finished fifth, while Amber Peterson of Thunder Bay and Bauer just missed the 12-skier final, placing 13th and 14th respectively.

Dionne scored 176.25 for her two jumps in a tight battle for the bronze medal. Her score was two points shy of fourth-place Elizabeth Gardner of Australia, as bronze medallist Evelyne Leu of Switzerland reached the World Cup podium for the first time this season. Her score was 180.57.

The Australians went 1-2, with Alisa Camplin extending her overall World Cup lead by outscoring teammate Lydia Ierodiaconou 189.20 to 185.63.

North America's World Cup tour concludes tonight (Saturday) with dual moguls, before the tour resumes in Japan in two weeks.