Val Saint-Côme (QC), Canada – Milton, Ontario native Travis Gerrits jumped his way to a silver medal in front of a large Canadian crowd in warm conditions at Saturday’s FIS World Cup Aerials event in Quebec’s Lanaudière region.

It was the first World Cup podium for the 21-year-old, who scored 114.61 in the super final round of the competition. Belarus’s Dmitri Dashinski took the gold at 120.24 and China’s Hang Zhou was third with a score of 100.45.

After suffering a knee injury last January that curtailed his 2012 season, Gerrits couldn’t contain his excitement at the finish.

“I’m kind of on top of the world. I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “To come back from my injury last season and to stomp my jumps here, it’s just awesome.”

Gerrits, who was ninth in China a week earlier, added that he still isn’t up to the full degree of difficulty (DD) he hopes to compete with this season. He competed a full, full, full (triple twisting triple back flip) in the finals but plans to add another twist by this week’s competition in Lake Placid, N.Y..

“The full, full, full was the only jump I had left in my arsenal before I start doing bigger jumps next week in Placid. So to podium here with a lower DD means my coaches and I are doing all the right things technically, we’re taking it slow which is the right thing to do with my training,” said Gerrits.

Dylan Ferguson, of Amesbury, Mass., finished with the best U.S. male performance in ninth.

On the women’s side China’s Mengtao Xu was first at 104.5; Lydia Lassila of Australia took the silver with a score of  95.52 and Yu Yang of China was third at 91.29. Emily Cook, of Belmont, Mass., matched her male counterpart Ferguson’s result for the second time this season, finishing ninth.

“The competition didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped today but I was happy to be in finals and training was really great,” said Cook. “I’m really looking forward to getting home to Lake Placid next week and jumping in front of the  hometown crowd!”

Allison Lee, of Manchester, Conn., was right on the cusp, finishing 13^th. The only Canadian woman in Saturday’s event, Sabrina Guérin of Laval, Quebec, fell on her qualifications jump and finished 18^th.

“I think I felt a lot of the pressure from being at home and being the only girl competing for Canada,” admitted Guérin. “I went forward on the jump and I bent my knees and I tried to save the landing and it didn’t really work and I finally crashed at the bottom.”

The World Cup mogul and aerial teams now head to Lake Placid, N.Y. for competitions this week.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle World Cup
Val Saint-Côme (QC), Canada – Jan. 12, 2013
Aerials

Men

Women