Aerials World Cup set for season’s kick-off in China
Dec 20, 2019·Freestyle
The FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup season is just about to kick off this weekend with back-to-back competitions scheduled to go down in Shimao Lotus Mountain Ski Resort (CHN). This weeked’s individual contest is set for Saturday at 13:30, while the team event will follow up on Sunday at 14:00, both local time.
The 2019/20 tour is coming straight back to the place that saw the final two competitions of last season go down in extraordinary fashion, with the Chinese powerhouse duo of Xu Mengtao and Wang Xindi claiming World Cup titles in front of the home crowd. Once again the Chinese Ski Association has decided to bring world’s best aerials action to Jilin province, which has a long history of hosting FIS Freestyle Ski events, dating back the first World Cup competition in Changchun in 2005.
While heading into the first two competitions of the season it’s hard to predict who will contend for a spot on the podium here in China. However, based on last year’s results there are a couple of names that everyone should keep an eye on when looking for favourites this weekend.
Starting on the ladies’ side watch out for the reigning World Cup crystal globe winner Xu Mengtao, who will have strong support from her up-and-coming teammates Xu Sicun and Shao Qi, who both finished in World Cup top-5 last season.
Then also watch another highly decorated trio of Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya, Hanna Huskova and Alla Tsuper of Belarus. Ramanouskaya is coming of a very successful season in which she won the 2019 Utah World Championship title in Deer Valley, as well as the gold medal at 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk. Huskova, on the other hand, is set to enter first major competition since her remarkable gold medal performance at 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games. The same also applies to the 2014 Olympic Champion Tsuper, as the veteran will be looking to extended her very successful career by rejoining the World Cup tour, 23 years after her World Cup debut in 1996.
The field is also stacked on the men’s side of the event. Starting with the host nation, count on last year’s World Cup winner Wang Xindi and his teammate and World Cup aerials runner-up Sun Jiaxu to be top contenders through competition this weekend.
Also competing for its first contest since 2018 Olympic Winter Games will be Qi Guangpu. With 28 World Cup podiums including 12 victories, two crystal globes, as well as two gold and two silver medals at world championships, Qi is without a doubt one of the most successful athletes in the recent history of aerial skiing. And with no other major event in the calendar this term, it’s fair to predict that Qi will be doing his best to be back to winning ways as he seeks to claim his third career crystal globe by season’s end.
Also let’s not forget about the likes of 2018 aerials World Cup winner and 2019 World Champion Maxim Burov (RUS), as well as Noe Roth and Pirmin Werner of Switzerland, who were members of the golden team in the historic first-ever Aerials Mixed Team World Championships competition at Utah 2019.
With so many top-notch athletes on hand in Shimao Lotus Mountain, and one of the world best jumping site, everything is shaping up for an exciting weekend of highly anticipated aerials World Cup action.
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