WANNON export, Miriana Perkins, has impressed at her first world championship outing, finishing fourth at the FIS Aerial Junior World Championships in Obertauern, Austria.

Perkins has returned home after more than four months abroad, culminating in her fourth place finish late last month.

The 20-year-old said she had no expectations going into the event, and after a tough Teams performance, she bounced back to scrape into sixth place and qualify for the final.

“I was really happy with it, I got lucky,” she said.

“Our end goal was to compete at junior worlds and to do some good quality jumps on our feet.

“It (podium) was definitely not on my mind; the circumstances of the day, the weather was crazy, it was an eight-hour day and I just happened to land my jumps.”

Perkins had two qualification jumps, nailing a back lay then back tuck, before going back to the lay in the final, where she improved on her sixth-place qualification to finish fourth with a score of 54.53, trailing American, Amelia Glogowski in third by just over seven points.

Perkins also created history, joining fellow Victorians, Sidney Stephens and Reilly Flanagan, as the first Australian aerial skiiers to compete at the junior world championships.

Perkins, Stephens and Flanagan have been training in Europe for four months, and has been under the guidance of coach, Renee McElduff.

“Although I am happy with it, I still have a lot of work to do,” Perkins said.

“We were all really excited, we were just happy to get out and compete.”

McElduff said the championships offered the trio plenty of experience in pressure situations.

“All three athletes were high-performing gymnasts and given their talent we anticipate they will transition well to aerial skiing,” she said.

“Although their degree of difficulty was not competitive with the rest of the field, the pressure and environment mimicked that of a world championships or Olympic Games, both of which they have the potential to represent Australia at in the next three years.

After spending four months abroad, with a large portion of the time in Finland and Salt Lake City in the United States, Perkins is enjoying a few weeks back home before training resumes.

“I love it, I just love aerial skiing, the lifestyle and I just love everything about it,” Perkins said.

“I have had two weeks off, I have another then I go back to Melbourne for strength camp before I go back to Brisbane until pretty much November when I go away again.”