OWI scholarship holder Ramone Cooper has finished in second place in the first round of the Australian Mogul Championships. Cooper scored 24.79 points from the judges, just short of the winning score of Japanese skier Kai Ozaki on 25.08. The bronze went to Ozaki's team-mate Nobuyuki Nishi on 23.46. The next best Australian was NSWIS junior David Graham in eighth place on 20.46 points.

In the women's first round event, Austrian World Championship bronze medallist Margarita Marbler took the gold on 24.84 points, ahead of the Japanese duo of Miki and Azusa Ito.

Best of the Australians was Perisher Winter Sports Club junior Nicole Parks, who finished in fifth place on 17.87 points.

Marbler backed up in the second event, with Miki Ito taking silver once again. But Nicole Parks made certain an Aussie made the podium, taking bronze.

In the men's second event, Cooper received no score, and the gold went to Osamu Ueno in a Japanese trifecta. David Graham was the best of the home-town contingent in fifth place.

Meanwhile, Torino gold medallist Dale Begg-Smith has joined Cooper and OWI coach Steve Desovich for three weeks of training on the Toppa's Dream course in Perisher Blue.

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom


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