China’s Xu Mengtao wins 4th career world championships medal

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) — China’s aerial skier Xu Mengtao claimed her fourth career world championships medal on Friday at the Sierra Nevada 2017 Freestyle Ski & Snowboard Worlds.

Xu, runner-up of the women’s freestyle skiing aerial at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, finished third at the worlds.

Another Chinese skier Qi Guangpu took a silver in the men’s competition.

It was an incredible night for the US aerials team, with Ashley Caldwell and Jonathon Lillis both nailing incredible final jumps to take the respective women’s and men’s gold medals.

Caldwell’s performance should go down in history as one of the greatest of all time, as the 23-year-old became the first woman ever to land the triple-flipping, quadruple-spinning jump known as “The Daddy” in competition – a full, double full, full, which earned her 109.25 points.

Australian Danielle Scott took second place with 94.47 points, ahead of Xu’s score of 91.65.

In the men’s final, Lillis upgraded his last jump to a full, full, double full. He then proceeded to land that with authority to earn a score of 125.79 points.

Qi was second in 120.36. The two-time world champion downgraded his last jump and failed to win his third world championships title in a row.

The bronze medal went to Sochi Olympic runner-up David Morris of Australia, who scored 114.93.