Sochi, Russia – The Chinese dominated Sunday’s World Cup aerials skiing competition in the Sochi 2014 Olympic venue in Rosa Khutor, sweeping wins with Guangpu Qi taking men’s and Mengtau Xu the women’s.
Dylan Ferguson, of Amesbury, Mass., and Connecticut’s Kiley McKinnon each soared to fifth in the pre-Olympic test event. Olivier Rochon, of Gatineau, Quebec, was the top Canadian in fourth place. Canada’s lone entry in the women’s comp, Sabrina Guerin of Laval, Quebec, finished in 17th position after falling on her landing and did not advance to finals.
It was a challenging week with warm weather, snow and fog making training challenging. In fact, the volunteer crew went to heroic efforts to pull off the event, continuously loading dry ice into tubes embedded in the jumps in a successful bid to keep them solid over three days of training and Sunday night’s competition. Unfortunately, the landing was very tricky and the soft, slushy snow wreaked havoc. To exacerbate the situation, a heavy fog rolled in just before the start of the men’s super final round and all four athletes crashed on their landings, making for an anti-climactic finish of an otherwise spectacular show.
The athletes were nonetheless very pleased with the new venue located next to the Olympic halfpipe.
“It’s been a really great week here in Sochi. Even though the weather wasn’t the best the site is absolutely unbelievable and by far the coolest venue I’ve ever seen,” said Ferguson. “To look over and see the halfpipe right next to our site is sweet. I actually took a few laps in it after the comp was over.”
It was a career best for McKinnon. Ferguson threw a double full, full, full for his marquee jump of the evening with McKinnon going full, full.
“I’m really happy with my fifth place finish today, it’s the best finish I’ve had on the World Cup circuit,” McKinnon explained. “My qualification jump didn’t go as planned and threw me off a little but I was able to come back with a solid second jump to get me into the next round.”
The final aerials event of the World Cup season is coming up next weekend in the Ukraine.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle World Cup
Sochi, Russia – Feb. 17, 2013
Aerials
Men
| Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Level | Points |
| 1 | 3 | 2526229 | QI Guangpu | 1990 | CHN | 99.00 | 1000.00 | |
| 2 | 12 | 2416982 | LIU Zhongqing | 1985 | CHN | 95.02 | 800.00 | |
| 3 | 9 | 2360140 | OSIPAU Denis | 1983 | BLR | 90.18 | 600.00 | |
| 4 | 15 | 2484932 | ROCHON Olivier | 1989 | CAN | 82.66 | 500.00 | |
| 5 | 8 | 2343160 | FERGUSON Dylan | 1988 | USA | 111.31 | 450.00 | |
| 6 | 6 | 2484526 | GUSTIK Maxim | 1988 | BLR | 103.98 | 400.00 | |
| 7 | 4 | 2164970 | DASHINSKI Dmitri | 1977 | BLR | 103.98 | 360.00 | |
| 8 | 5 | 2485099 | MORRIS David | 1984 | AUS | 95.13 | 320.00 | |
| 9 | 22 | 2527147 | LILLIS Jonathon | 1994 | USA | 95.13 | 290.00 | |
| 10 | 32 | 2438904 | WU Chao | 1987 | CHN | 84.96 | 260.00 |
Women
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Result | Points |
| 1 | 1 | XU Mengtao | 1990 | CHN | 106.02 | 1000.00 |
| 2 | 6 | PEEL Laura | 1989 | AUS | 82.07 | 800.00 |
| 3 | 9 | SCHAERER Tanja | 1989 | SUI | 74.82 | 600.00 |
| 4 | 4 | ZHANG Xin | 1985 | CHN | 72.96 | 500.00 |
| 5 | 18 | MCKINNON Kiley | 1995 | USA | 79.69 | 450.00 |
| 6 | 5 | SCOTT Danielle | 1990 | AUS | 78.43 | 400.00 |
| 7 | 20 | SLIVETS Assoli | 1982 | RUS | 78.12 | 360.00 |
| 8 | 26 | XU Sicun | 1992 | CHN | 75.28 | 320.00 |
| 9 | 14 | WELLS Samantha | 1989 | AUS | 73.08 | 290.00 |
| 10 | 19 | LEE Allison | 1989 | USA | 50.75 | 260.00 |