Australia’s Lydia Ierodiaconou has suffered a reoccurrence of a serious knee injury during the qualifying round of the aerials competition at the Winter Olympics in Torino.

In 3rd position after the first round of jumps Ierodiaconou grabbed for her left knee on landing the second jump and crashed heavily while sliding down the slope.

It appeared her injured knee gave way on impact.

Coaches and officials rushed to her aid at the bottom of the hill. She was stretchered off the course immediately.

Ierodiaconou suffered a serious knee injury in training back in June 2005 and underwent a full reconstruction where she received a donor Achilles tendon.

The allograft reconstruction is designed to speed up recovery.

The world’s number two ranked aerials skier for the past three years was supremely confident after landing her first jump tonight.

She scored 101.52 points to claim 3rd position after round one.

But on the second jump the knee appeared to collapse on landing. Alisa Camplin, Liz Gardner and Jacqui Cooper were all distressed to see their team-mate in agony on the ice.

Cooper performed superbly in the competition qualifying in 1st place. It is believed she established a new unofficial world record with a score of 213.36 points from her two jumps.

The previous world record of 207.31 was set by Camplin at the 2003 World Championships in Deer Valley.

Camplin, the defending Olympic champion, also qualified for the 12-woman final in 10th position with a score of 165.32 points.

Liz Gardner finished in 23rd place with 127.42 points.

AOC