DEER VALLEY, FEB 6, 2012 - Russian Sergey Volkov laid down the run of the day to knock Canada's Mikael Kingsbury from the top of the podium for the first time in seven races in Saturday's dual moguls event at Deer Valley, Utah. It was the first World Cup win of Volkov's career, and a promising showing for that country's freestyle team as they countdown towards hosting the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Kingsbury, the 2011/12 World Cup season moguls FIS points leader, was left just short in his bid to best American Jeremy Bloom's seven year old record of six consecutive moguls wins.
On the ladies' side, American Hannah Kearney continued her incredible run of victories, claiming her 14th straight first-place finish in a final run matchup against Justine Dufour-LaPointe of Canada. Illustrating a lesson in control and precision, Kearney was awarded the win despite crossing the finish .06 behind Dufour-LaPointe, based on her cleaner turns and superior form. For Dufour-LaPointe it was the 5th time this season she has found herself in the runner-up position.
Rounding out the top four for the men were Andrey Volkov (RUS) third and Jeremy Cota (USA) in fourth. For the women, Heather McPhie (USA) and Yulia Galysheve (KAZ) were third and fourth, respectively.
FULL MEN'S RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
FULL WOMEN'S RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DUAL MOGULS EVENT CAN BE FOUND HERE.
CHINESE AERIALS TEAM DOMINATES DEER VALLEY
With both the men's first place podium and a 1-2-3 sweep on the ladies' side, the Chinese aerials squad was again in control in Friday's event at Deer Valley.
For the men, Zongyang Jia took his second World Cup win of the year, handily beating out American Dylan Ferguson and Canadian Olivier Rochon.
The story of the day,, however was Ferguson's, as he earned his first World Cup podium on his home slope. Ferguson dedicated his win to teammate and friend Jeret "Speedy" Peterson, who took his own life in July of last year. Ferguson's podium capped off what had been an already emotional weekend for the aerials world, as earlier in the week Deer Valley Resorts had renamed the site's aerials tow-rope "The Hurricane" in honor of the late Peterson.
In the ladies event, Mengtao Xu was good enough to take the win for the fifth event in a row over teammates Shuang Cheng and Fanyu Kong. The three ladies have found themselves sharing the podium in three of the last four events, all in the same order as after Friday's jumps.
FULL MEN'S RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
FULL LADIES' RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
