The first - and only - aerials team event of the season closed out the 2016/17 aerials World Cup season-opening weekend in Beida Lake (CHN) on Sunday, with the young Russian squad of Liubov Nikitina, Maxim Burov, and Alexandra Orlova - just 17, 18, and 19 years old, respectively - besting all comers in the combined-score competition.

Russia limped into the finals in fifth place, with the strong Chinese team (featuring Saturday's ladies' competition winner Xu Mengtao and Sunday's top men's qualifier Qi Guangpu) leading the way, followed by teams Australia, USA, and Belarus (featuring Saturday's men's winner Anton Kushnir), with Canada and Kazakstan rounding out the seven-team final round one.

In the first final round, however, things got largely flipped upside-down, with Russia moving into the three-team second final in top spot before repeating that performance once again there, with Orlova back full, full, Nikitina's back double full, full, and Burov's back full, double full, full, earning them a combined score of 255.81 and a decisive victory over the second place Canadians and third place Australians.

"We've tried our best today," Burov commented on Russia's win in the team event, "There is a good chemistry in our team and we can rely on each other. Everyone was very focused today and we've manged to take the first place what of course feels amazing. We're very happy."

"I think we've got us to this position with years of hard work," said Canadians Travis Gerrits on his team's second place result, "Water ramping this summer is just one of the example how we prepare for the season. Determination and pushing through little injuries resulted in podium spot today. It's a very satisfying feeling."

As is protocol with any aerials team event, the qualification seeding round held earlier in the morning was where the World Cup points for the evening would come from, essentially creating the atmosphere of a double-header competition day as athletes strove not just to improve their team's standing, but also to battle for their place on the World Cup leaderboard. 

This meant that in ladies' competition, top qualifier Danielle Scott (AUS) would take 100 points away from the competition, with her double full, full in qualification earning her a score of 93.76 to best Xu's score of 92.35 earned for performing the same jump. Third in qualifications went to Scott's teammate Samantha Wells. 

After Saturday's second-place performance, Sunday's qualification win moved Scott up into a lead with Xu atop the ladies aerials Word Cup leaderboard. "I'm extremely happy today," Scott said after her performance, "Going into the New Year wearing the yellow bib and sharing it with Mengtao feels very good."

On the men's side, Qi was able to improve upon his second-place result in Saturday's World Cup and lock down top spot on Sunday, landing a massive double full, full, full that earned him a score of 122.17 and a nearly 10-point advantage over his teammate Liu Zhongqin. Maxim Gustik of Belarus and Xindi Wang from China, in a rare tie, would round out the men's top three.   

Qi was able to take the lead in the aerials World Cup standing an his performance, along with that of his teammates like Xu and Liu, has helped make an early argument that the Chinese team is back and ready to dominate in 2016/17 after two below-par season on the aerials World Cup. 

Source: fis-ski.com