Xu and Burov come up huge in Deer Valley finale
Aug 31, 2018·Freestyle
Deer Valley (USA) - Three days of FIS Freestyle Skiing action at Deer Valley Resort finished with bang on Friday night at the legendary resort, with Xu Mengtao (CHN) and Maxim Burov (RUS) claiming big victories in an explosive final.
After two days of top-level moguls competition went down on Wednesday and Thursday nights it was up to the men and ladies’ of aerials to live up to their event-closing time slot, and they did not disappoint, with the men’s super final in particular providing the thousands of fans gathered at the base of Deer Valley’s White Owl venue with one of the most incredible aerials displays in recent memory.
However, up first was the ladies, where two underrated US athletes would make it through to the super final to thrill the huge crowd on hand, but in the end it would be the reigning aerials crystal globe champion who would step up on the huge stage to take the win.
Super finals appearances for Madison Olsen and Madison Varmette were a huge boon to the host US aerials team after favourite Kiley McKinnon and Ashley Caldwell failed to advance from the first finals round. For Olsen Friday night’s fourth-place finish was the second best of her career, while for Varmette, appearing in just her fifth World Cup competition, her sixth-place finish was an early career best.
Still, Olsen’s result was the closest a US athlete would get to the podium on a night when Xu stepped up to show everybody who’s the boss, taking the win and claiming the yellow aerials World Cup leader’s bib in the process.
Performing triple flips in competition for the first time since she blew her knee almost two year ago, Xu put down a near flawless back full, full, full in her final jump of the evening to demolish the competition, finishing with 114.21 points - nearly 20 points better than second place Kristina Spiridonova’s (RUS) 88.47.
“Today is a meaningful day for me,” said Xu after the awards ceremony, “This is my first win of the season and it’s the first time since my knee surgery two years ago that I’ve won a World Cup event doing triple flips, so I’m very happy and very excited. And to do it here where the fans are very passionate is exciting.”
For 19-year-old Spiridonova it was her second podium result of the season, vaulting her into third place on the leaderboard behind Xu and Hanna Huskova (BLR), who finished the day in fifth. Xu's countrywoman Kong Fanyu earned her eighth career podium with a third place result.
Burov bests incredible performances by strong field
In the men’s super final the huge crowd gathered at Deer Valley was treated to a show to remember, with five of the top six athletes stomping huge, clean tricks in an epic game of oneupmanship.
US favourite and reigning aerials world champion Jonathon Lillis lead the way into finals after putting down both the biggest and cleanest jump of the evening up to that point in finals way, setting himself up as the last man to drop in on the final round of competition of the 2018 Deer Valley World Cup week.
Somehow, with what was the perfect moment set up for the last US podium hopeful, it seemed like the rest of the international field responded by putting on their absolute best displays, with all five of the athletes leading up to Lillis’ final jump scoring airs above 110 points.
The best of these, and the eventual winner once Lillis crashed on his competition-ender, would be Maxim Burov of Russia, who stomped an almost-perfect back double full, full, full to earn a score of 131.67 and the first World Cup win of his young career, making for two Russian 19-year-olds on the podium in one evening.
“This was the best jump of my life tonight,” said Burov, “And I could not be happier.”
As with Xu, Burov's win would give him possession of the yellow bib as the men's aerials World Cup leader.
Second place on the day went to Guangpu Qi (CHN), the reigning men’s crystal globe champion, while third place belonged to reigning Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medal winner Anton Kushnir (BLR).
From Deer Valley, the aerials World Cup moves on to Lake Placid (USA) next weekend for the final two competitions of the 2017/18 World Cup season.
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