LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Kyle Nissen won silver in men's aerials while fellow Calgarian Warren Shouldice took bronze at a freestyle skiing World Cup meet Sunday.
  
Jeret Peterson of the U.S., took the gold with 252.59 points. Nissen, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, followed at 244.92 and Shouldice snared his second bronze in two events this season with 243.03.
  
Peterson became the men's aerials World Cup points leader with the victory.

Nissen reached a major goal stepping on the podium early in his comeback season.

"I got some good training in the last few weeks and it paid off," said Nissen. "I felt a lot more comfortable and was able to do my two hardest jumps for the first time this season. It was a bit stressful but I had an excellent performance.  I'm so happy to be back on the podium."

Shouldice, who battled the flu all week in training, executed his most difficult jump in the final, a lay triple full-full which is a quadruple twisting triple flip with three twists in the second flip.

"I hadn't done it since the Olympics and it's that jump that got me the medal today," said Shouldice. `'I trained it yesterday and it went OK, the weather was perfect for it, plus I needed a big second jump after scoring 117 points on my first one.  I really kept a good head tonight and didn't get too nervous."
  
Steve Omischl of Kelowna, B.C., the two-time defending aerials World Cup champion, was eighth and Ryan Blais of Grande Prairie, Alta., also reached the final and was 10th.

Remi Belanger of Mascouche, Que., just missed the cut placing 13th in the preliminaries.

In women's aerials, Alla Tsuper of Belarus won the gold medal with 189.98 points. Mengtao Xu of China was second at 186.11 and Emily Cook of the U.S., third at 184.70.

Veronika Bauer of Toronto, third at the season opening event in China last month, was the top Canadian in seventh.

Sabrina Guerin of Laval, Que., was ninth and Amber Peterson of Thunder Bay, Ont., also reached the final placing 11th.

Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alta., was 16th in the preliminaries and did not advance.