Peel and Burov with top spots in Yaroslavl

Jan 16, 2021·Freestyle

A standout night of freestyle skiing action went down under the lights in Yaroslavl (RUS) on Saturday evening, where Australia’s Laura Peel and Russia’s Maxim Burov led the charge and took impressive victories in the second competition of the 2020/21 FIS Freestyle aerials World Cup season.

Following an extended holiday break the aerials World Cup tour finally got back to action for the first time in 2021, as the first of two competitions scheduled for this weekend in Russia got underway in impressive fashion, with the massive scaffold jump set-up in Yaroslavl making its World Cup debut with a memorable competition.

In the women’s event it was Laura Peel who extended her winning streak to three consecutive World Cup victories dating back to last season, and her second win of 2020/21. Heading into finals ranked fourth for her double jumps through qualifying, Peel stepped up to her signature triple flips in the finals where, despite some serious competition from the likes of Ashley Caldwell (USA), Liubov Nikitina (RUS) and Marion Thenault (CAN), she managed to stick the top scoring jump in the hotly-contested event.

Starting with her lay-tuck-full in the first round of finals, Peel went for a full-tuck-full in the super final round, and while she had some difficulties on the landing she was clearly performing the most difficult jump in women’s competition. Peel showed an excellent execution in the air, which combined with the difficulty degree of her jump was just enough to earn her a score of 96.59 points and a spot on top of the podium.

Falling just short of top spot on the day was Caldwell, who received 96.23 points for her full-double full - leaving her just .36 away from what would have been her first World Cup victory in four years.

Meanwhile, Russian fans favourite Liubov Nikitina rounded-out the podium in third place with 93.41 points for her double full-full.

In the aerials World Cup standing Laura Peel maintained her lead on top of the field with a perfect 200 points after two competitions. Emma Weiss (GER) sits in second place with 109 points, while Ashley Caldwell now jumps into third place with 100 points.

Over on the men’s side it was once again Maxim Burov performing at an exceptional level, leading a 1-2 punch on the top steps of the podium for the host Russian team, with his teammate Pavel Krotov finishing just back in second.

Burov dominated the competition in Yaroslavl while perfectly stomping all of his jumps on the way.

He started with a score of 126.55 in qualifications, which was followed by 127.88 points in the first round of finals. Then, on the last jump of the day Burov performed a double full-full-full for which he received 127.60 points to follow Peel in claiming his second victory in two events on the season.

Similarly to what happened in Ruka back in December, again in Yaroslavl it was Pavel Krotov who was pushing Burov all day long, finishing just behind his teammate in each of the competition’s rounds. On his last jump of the day Krotov also performed a double full-full-full for a score of 120.81 points that consequently earned him his second runner-up result of 2020/21.

The reigning World Cup champion Noe Roth of Switzerland finished the competition in Yaroslavl in third place with 120.36 points, also for a double full-full-full.

The men’s aerials World Cup leaderboard mirrors the podium we saw in Yarolslavl, with Maxim Burov increasing his hold atop the board with 200 points. Krotov sits behind his countryman Burov in second place with 160 points, while Roth moves up to third place with 100 points.

The aerials World Cup action continues tomorrow with with individual single round event at 14:00 (12:00 CET), which will be followed by the team event under the lights at 19:00 (17:00 CET).

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