Omischl struggles in Utah

VALLEY, Utah – With victories at the previous two Word Cup stops, North Bay's Steve Omischl seemed to be suffering from "burn out" on Friday as he placed ninth at the Deer Valley Freestyle FIS competition held in the evening.

Stanislav Kravchuk of Ukraine won the gold medal at 226.85 points with Vladimir Lebedev of Russia second at 223.21 and Renato Ulrich of Switzerland third at 222.23.

Omischl, who was 10th in qualifying, totalled 187.76 points in the final. Warren Shouldice of Calgary missed a berth in the final by one spot placing 13th in qualifying.

“I’m not very pleased at all with the performance,” said Omischl who took gold last Sunday at Ski Mont Gabriel, Que., and the previous Saturday at Lake Placid, N.Y.

“But I’m just exhausted right now. The last two weeks took a lot out of me. This week everything from the travel difficulties to get here, to scheduling, to being at altitude, all just took its toll.”

Omischl still leads the men's aerials World Cup standings with 389 points after 5 events.

With files from www.freestyleski.com