Lillis Third in Beidahu
The action in Beidahu continued with the aerials event, and Chris Lillis continued to build on his momentum from Deer Valley with a third place finish.
The conditions in China did not disappoint with another crisp sunny day for jumping. In qualifications, Karenna Elliott led the way for the U.S. women, throwing a back full full to qualify in fifth place. Dani Loeb missed out on finals, finishing 14th. Tasia Tanner finished 18th.
Quinn Dehlinger and Chris Lillis were determined to build off their podium finishes in Deer Valley, and their quest had a strong start in qualifications. Quinn threw a back full double full full qualifying seventh. Lillis stepped up the difficulty by throwing the highest DD jump in the qualification round, a back double full full full to qualify fourth. Connor Curran finished 17th, followed by Ian Schoenwald in 28th.
In finals, Elliott, Lillis and Dehlinger all put down great jumps to move on to super finals, where the action began to heat up. Elliott advanced in third place, Dehlinger in fifth and Lillis in sixth. In super finals, Elliott competed a back double full full for the first time, and it was only her fifth time attempting the trick on snow. Against all odds, she was able to land it beautifully, her first time ever landing the skill. This is an exciting move for Elliott to increase her degree of difficulty heading into World Championships. Her jump landed her in fourth place.
“I’m feeling very confident with this trick, considering how new it is and how well it’s going,” said Elliott. “Moving forward, I would like to clean up my form a bit and make my landings a lot sharper.”
On the men’s side, Dehlinger decided to up the difficulty in super finals and went for a back double full full full. His jump was perfect in the air and form; however, an overrotation caused a fall on the landing. He finished the day sixth. Lillis went for “the daddy” in super finals, a back full double full full, and absolutely stomped it. He earned the highest landing score of the round to finish third, his third podium of the season.
“It feels good to be getting some solid momentum going into World Championships at the end of the year,” said Lillis. “Each week on the World Cup presents a unique challenge, and Kazakhstan will be no different. It is one of the more difficult sites to jump on tour, but I’ve had a lot of success there in the past and am very familiar with the venue, so I’m just hoping to get there, get acclimate,d and keep putting down solid jumps when it counts.”
Next up, Elliott, Dehlinger and Lillis take on the mixed aerials team event in Beidah together on Feb. 24 alongside Loeb, Curran and Schoenwald. Tune in at 1:00 a.m. ET on skiandsnowboard.live.
