Ramanouskaya and Burov shine in Deer Valley’s aerials event
Feb 08, 2020·Freestyle
The some 7500 fans gathered at the base of Deer Valley’s White Owl aerials venue were treated to an incredible show on Friday evening, as perfect weather conditions and what is arguably the best aerials set-up on the World Cup tour allowed Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya (BLR) and Maxim Burov (RUS) to stomp show-stopping jumps, with both athletes repeating their 2019 world championships wins at the same venue with World Cup wins almost exactly a year do the day later.
Ramanouskaya a cut above
Last season’s Utah 2019 world champion at the same venue, Ramanouskaya clearly loves to perform in Deer Valley at what is often referred to as the “Super Bowl of Freestyle,” and on Friday she was head-and-shoulders above her competitors throughout the evening.
The only skier to hit the triple jump for both of her finals runs, Ramanouskaya stomped a back lay, tuck, full to earn the best score in the first finals run, earning herself the honours of dropping last in the six-woman super final.
There she stepped it up a notch, performing a gutsy lay, full, full that would earn her the win a score of 106.74 - more than 20 points more than second place finisher Megan Nick of the USA.
“Every year it’s becoming more and more special here in Deer Valley,” the 23-year-old Ramanouskaya smiled from the finish area, “It’s really nice to compete here and I really like this course. We were lucky today with the weather and everything was perfect. I’m happy with the jumps I did - I like to compete with more difficult jumps, and hoping that in the coming season more girls will step it up to the triples.”
Ramanouskaya would also jump into the lead on the women’s aerials World Cup rankings, with 260 points, giving her a decent cushion over Xu Mengtao (CHN) and her 200 points.
Second place Nick was one of three women from the host US squad to make into the super final, but the only one to make it onto the podium, with her well-executed double full, full, earning a score of 83.89 and the first World Cup podium of her young career - all with home crowd loudly cheering her on.
Rounding out the women’s podium in third was another World Cup top-three first-timer, as Abbey Willcox of Australia skied super solidly all day in Deer Valley, finishing things off in the super final with a near-perfect back lay, full, that earned a score of 81.78.
Burov comes out on top in battle of quintuple spinning triples
Over on the men’s side of things, performances reached a crescendo normally reserved for an Olympic Games-level of competition, as two athletes in the super final stomped quintuple twisting triple backflips, with one of them - Maxim Burov - putting down cleanly what is one of the most difficult jumps in all of aerials.
After rolling through the first round of finals in top spot, Burov had the floor to himself with the final jump of the evening. There he rose to the occasion on the greatest stage of the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup to cleanly put down a double full, full, double full - a jump with a degree of difficulty rating of 5.0 - to take the fifth World Cup win of his career.
“I’m very proud of my win tonight,” Burov said through translator, “I basically just started preparing this jump, and tonight was the first night I’ve ever performed it on the World Cup. Tonight I took over the World Cup leader bib and I want to continue to be the best on the World Cup.”
As the winner himself mention, Friday’s victory gave Burov the yellow aerials World Cup leader’s bib, with 209 points - just above Qi Guangpu’s (CHN) 200.
Burov’s incredible performance bumped a performance that was almost equally impressive by 19-year-old Noe Roth of Switzerland. A member of last season’s Swiss squad that won aerials team event gold at the Utah 2019 world champs at Deer Valley, and the bronze medal winner in the individual competition, Roth too put down an incredible quintuple twisting triple flip with his back double full, double full, full.
As with Burov, it was Roth’s first time performing such a difficult jump in World Cup competition, and though a small break in form and slightly sketching landing lost him a few points, his final score of 126.91 would earn him his second podium of the season in impressive fashion.
Landing a full, full, double full for a score of 123.98, third place on the evening went to Maxim’s older brother Ilya, for his first podium in nearly two years. It was the first time the two brothers had shared a World Cup podium together, and the embrace that Ilya gave his brother in the finish area after the younger sibling landed his incredible winning-jump was one of the highlight moments of the evening.
Action in Deer Valley continues on Saturday evening, where dual moguls competition will close out what has been another phenomenal weekend of freestyle skiing in one of the world’s best venues.
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