Sun jiaxu of China reacts during the awarding ceremony after the men's final of FIS Freestyle Ski Aerial World Cup 2019 at Shimao Lotus Mountain in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, March 2, 2019. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)
CHANGCHUN, China, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's veteran Laural Peel dominated in the FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup at Shimao Lotus Mountain Ski Resort on Saturday, collecting 96.58 points to bag her career second World Cup victory in this season's last event.
Xu Sicun of China and Ashley Caldwell of the United States both got 81.78, but Xu completed a better jump with a relatively low degree of difficulty to win the silver.
In the men's actions, Chinese young skier Sun Jiaxu clinched his career first World Cup title by scoring a career-best 126.11 points, edging his teammate Wang Xindi by 0.89 points. Eric Loughran of the United States got 123.45 to claim the bronze.
"We have some tough conditions out there," the 29-year-old Peel said, "so I was really grateful for my coach for putting me in the right spot all day and really happy that I was able to keep my nerve under control and compete how I wanted to."
The 2014/15 World Championship winner has gone through an up-and-down season so far as she finished two podiums in four World Cup events including a silver in Moscow, but only ranked 10th in Lake Placid and 11th in Minsk.
"So far, this season, probably we had some bad events. We were happy with my performance at three of them, and a little less with the other two. So, I'm happy to put it down today," Laural said.
Another Chinese star Xu Mengtao, who is leading the World Cup standings, missed the podium as she scored 81.07 to take the fourth place. But two top finishes in Minsk and Lake Placid and a third-placed performance in Moscow are enough for her to lock down her third consecutive and fifth total aerials World Cup crystal globe.
Sun, 19, said, "I have never imagined I could perform so well today. I'm still young and has to walk on step by step. Of course, my goal is Beijing 2022."
The newly-introduced Olympic discipline - team event will wrap up the 2018/19 season on Sunday as teams like China, Belarus, and the United States are certainly eyeing on the last glory this season.
