China soared to a second consecutive World Cup victory, edging out the U.S. to earn the gold medal at the freestyle mixed-team aerials event in Ruka, Finland on Saturday night. 

The Chinese team of Sochi 2014 Olympic silver medalist Xu Mengtao, and Sun Jiaxu and Qi Guangpu repeated last week's success in the same discipline by coming out on top with 338.30 points. The U.S. scored 315.66 points for the silver, followed by Ukraine with 303.07 points. 

The mixed team aerials event has been included in the World Cup program since the 2014/15 season and in the World Championships since 2019. But it will make its Olympic debut at Beijing 2022. 

The Russian Ski Federation, who dominated the World Championship this year, are considered the favorites to win the mixed team aerials in Beijing, but hosts China have become a force to be reckoned with, having taken golds in the last two legs of the World Cup.