Xu writes history, Burov repeats, China wins team event
Dec 03, 2021·Freestyle
A big and hugely entertaining aerial portion of the Freestyle Ski Opening event in Ruka came to a close on Friday, where China with Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu in squad took victory in the mixed team event, while afore-mentioned Xu and Russia’s Maxim Burov came on top in the one-round format individual competition.
Friday’s team event acted as the first out of three aerials team competitions scheduled for the 2021/22 season, with the individual phase of the competition deciding the results for World Cup points. And once again the world’s top athletes showed up ready to strut their stuff and get the crowd warmed up in what was another chilly day in Ruka.
The individual competition kicked off early at 10:00 local time, beginning a long but exciting day of the double-header World Cup event with everyone’s attention turned to see how the athletes would strive to battle for their place on the World Cup leaderboard.
In the women’s competition Xu Mengtao came with a little redemption afterfinishing outside of top-3. With only one attempt to decide on the final ranking, Xu went for a triple flip, as one of only three women’s athlete on the day, and her strong effort paid off big time.
Xu stepped things up a notch on day two and landed a stunning Lay, Full, Full with her score of 99.49 points being just enough to get the Chinese athlete on top of the women’s podium for her career’s 26th World Cup victory.
With the victory on Friday Xu wrote a piece of freestyle skiing history, as she moved clear of Aussie legend Jacqui Copper in the all-time ranking for most World Cup victories.
“I’m very happy to land my triple jumps today,” said Xu after the awards ceremony, “I didn’t do to good in trainings, but in competition everything worked out perfectly and I landed my triple. It’s my 26th World Cup victory and writing history today feels just so special.”
Yesterday’s winner Kong Fanyu finished the competition in second place with a score of 95.52 points for her double Full-Full, thus completing another 1-2 punch for the Chinese team after leading the way alongside her teammate Shao Qi on day one in Ruka.
2018 Olympic Champion Hanna Huskova of Belarus rounded out the women’s podium in third place for her first World Cup top-3 since February 2020. Huskova was the only athlete beside Xu and the reining World Cup champion Laura Peel (AUS) who performed a triple flip in the competition and while she was able to stick the landing on her Lay-Tuck-Full, she received a score of 94.60 points and consequently secured a spot on the podium.
In the World Cup ranking it is Kong Fanyu leading the way with 180 points after two competitions, with both of her teammates Xu and Qi following behind in second and third place with 140 and 110 points, respectively.
Over in the men’s competition Maxim Burov reached for his second individual victory in Ruka this past two days, while putting down a massive double Full-Full-Full for a score of 123.08 points. In last eight individual competitions dating back to 2020 Ruka World Cup event, Burov lost only once in Almaty, where he finished in 10th place. Burov has been showing a tremendous consistency and if he only continues to maintain his superb form until February, it will be difficult to find an athlete to beat him in a battle for that Olympic gold medal.
Second place on the day went to the 30-year-old veteran Jia Zongyang (CHN), who finished just .5 point behind Burov after stomping his Full double Full-Full.
Noe Roth (SUI) completed the men’s podium third with 121.27 points for his double Full-Full-Full. It was second top-3 finish for Roth in Ruka after finishing in third place also in Thursday’s competition.
In men’s aerials World Cup Maxim Burov leads the way with a perfect score of 200 points. Noe Roth sits behind in second place with 120 points, while Pirmin Werner (SUI) is rounding out top-3 with 91 points.
Straight after an exciting individual competition, as many as 10 teams each consisting of three athletes jousted together to give their best in the aerials mixed team event. And after the first round of jumps the field was narrowed down to only four teams, with 12 jumps remaining to decide the final ranking on the day.
Putting a cherry on top of the icing, after an impressive performance in individual competition, it was Team China that finished on top of the podium on Friday. Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu came in hot and led the field from start to finish, while managing to outscore strong competition, especially from the Russian Team. With all Xu, Jia and Qi all landing their tricks in the super final, China finished the competition with a total score of 343.24 points and wrapped up a highly successful two-day streak with three victories and another three top-3 finishes in Ruka.
Team Russia consisting of Liubov Nikitina, Stanislav Nikitin and Maxim Burov finished the competition in a runner-up position with 326.48 points, while Ukraine with Anastasiya Novosad, Dmytro Kotovskyi and the 2018 Olympic champion Oleksandr Abramenko in squad came in third with 291.55 points, for their first ever spot on the podium in a team competition.
The FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup action continues tomorrow with moguls event scheduled to go down under the lights at 16:00 local time. The aerials tour will get back to business next week with another back-to-back competitions in Ruka on December 10-11.
QUICK LINKS:
Ruka World Cup data page (startlists, live timing, results)
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