Xu and Sun sweep victories for China in Le Relais

Finishing behind Xu in second place was the local fans’ favourite Marion Thenault. The 21-year-old skier from Quebec, who was steadily building her form throughout the first portion of the season, finally scored a spot on the podium and made it a truly special one as it came right in front of her home crowd.  2021 “Rookie of the Year” winner Thenault impressed with her double Full-Full in the super final for which she received a score of 93.41 points.

Rounding out the women’s podium in third place was China’s Kong Fanyu, who finished the competition with 92.70 points, while also performing a double Full-Full in the best-of 6 big final round.

With the victory on Wednesday Xu increased her lead over second in the ranking Kong to 99 points, leading the way with 380 points to Kong’s 281. Australia’s Danielle Scott, who finished the competition in Le Relais just behind the podium in fourth place, completes the women’s World Cup top-3 with 230 points.

With the current World Cup leader Maxim Burov and the rest of the Russian team skipping the competition in Canada, the Chinese Aerials Team seized the opportunity with as many as four riders making their way through into big final.

With Switzerland’s Pirmin Werner failing to land his double Full-double Full-Full, as well as top Chinese guns Qi Guangpu and Wang Xindi also struggling with their jumps, it was Sun Jiaxu who came with a sort of unexpected performance to grab the win at the end of the day.

Wang snagged his career’s third World Cup victory, and his first top spot in almost three years after he received a score of 120.81 for his double Full-Full-Full in the big final.