Lydia Lassila finds perfection in Moscow aerial skiing World Cup

Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila has found perfection in the last World Cup event of her comeback season.

Australia’s Lydia Lassila on her way to the gold medal in Moscow yesterday.

Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila has found perfection in the last aerial skiing World Cup event of her comeback season to dominate her rivals in Moscow.

On a jump site built on scaffolding, 35-year-old Lassila was back to her best with a flawless performance that gave her three wins out of her past four outings.

In the six-woman final she performed a triple-twisting double somersault that scored 100.11 points out of a maximum of 105.

Her closest rival, Xu Mengtao of China, scored 94.11 for second place, which was enough to earn her the World Cup series title.

The strong Australian team took two of the top three placings, as reigning world champion Laura Peel returned to the ­podium (87.06) for the first time since her return from a career-threatening injury this season.

Lassila returned to competition in January after a three-year absence during which she gave birth to her second child, but she has quickly re-established herself as one of the strongest competitors in the world and is on track to contend for a third Olympic medal in Pyeongchang next year.

“We didn’t get lots of training in Moscow, but I felt like I knew what I was doing tonight. It’s nice to get that quality back,” Lassila said. “I wanted to come here and win. It’s rewarding when you think you can do something and then go do it.”

Peel was relieved to be back on the podium just a week before she is due to defend her world title in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

“Tonight definitely felt good,” Peel said. “I had been disappointed the last few weeks and wanted to put it all out there.

“(It) is a confidence booster. The format at World Championships is slightly different with three different jumps after qualifying instead of two. I’ve now successfully competed both versions of my triple twisting double and I will need both next week.”

Australia’s third contender, Danielle Scott, failed to land her final jump and dropped to fifth.

Meanwhile, US snowboarder Shaun White gained a measure of revenge over Australia’s Scotty James, reversing a recent trend in the half-pipe at the US Open yesterday. James had White’s measure at the X Games in Aspen and the Olympic test event in South Korea, which won him the World Cup series title, but White struck back at Vail in Colorado.

James will now head to Spain to defend his world title.