Omischl on top of Freestyle world again

STE-ADELE, Que – Aerialist Steve Omischl is back doing what he grew accustomed to doing – winning. The defending World Cup men’s aerials overall champion hadn’t reached the podium in his first two starts this season, but figured his time would come after winning five times last season.

The 30-year-old North Bay native collected the 36th World Cup freestyle ski medal of his career Sunday. His 19th World Cup victory was also his second straight win at Ski Mont Gabriel.

“Any time I can get a win, it’s special, especially in the qualifying period for the Olympics,” said Omischl.

After a stunning qualification round, in which eight men’s jumps scored at 120 or more points, at this Canada Post Freestyle Grand Prix Omischl led the tightly-bunched group with 123.45 points.

“I can’t jump any better. That was 100 per cent of what I’m capable of,” he said of his opening jump, a quadruple-twisting triple flip.

He was mostly satisfied with his ensuing jump, another version of a quad-twisting triple that clinched his win.

“I jumped well, but the weather got tricky. The wind got trickier,” said Omischl, whose winning two-jump score was 242.45. That was also good enough to earn him the yellow bib, as leader of the men’s overall aerials standings this season.

Prior to last year’s win here, Omischl’s best finish at Gabriel was fifth place.

The silver medal went to Timofei Slivets of Belarus in 240.95, while Thomas Lambert of Switzerland moved from eighth in the qualifying round to take the bronze in 233.95.

With files from freestyleski.ca