Intro:

Travis Gerrits just made it into the final - and then completed the first victory of his FIS World Cup career - as he won the freestyle aerials final at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium on Sunday (23rd December).

Script:

A large crowd greeted the FIS World Cup freestyle aerials super final at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium on Sunday.

Canadian Travis Gerrits was able to sneak into the super final in fourth place, behind reigning world champion Guangpu Qi of China, the reigning aerials overall champion and compatriot in Zongyang Jia, and a relative dark horse on the Chinese team in Chao Wu.

But, jumping first in the superfinal format, Gerrits threw down a back double-full, full, full - the least difficult of the jumps scheduled by any of the athletes.

However, Gerrits' jump was absolutely perfect, setting an early precedent that would prove impossible to beat as he registered 126.70 points - and took first place overall.

Jia, the reigning FIS World Cup aerials overall champion, then pulled off a scheduled back-full, double-full, double-full jump and was awarded 96.53 points - good enough for third place overall in the end.

Fellow Chinese Chao Wu performed a back-full, full, full - the easiest jump of the finals but completed to perfection - and was awarded 124.89 points to take second place overall.

Qi then crashed out to make fourth and last place a formality - which meant Gerrits had secured the first victory of his FIS World Cup career.