Ramanouskaya & Burov take home gold in aerials at worlds

DEER VALLEY, Utah, Feb 7, (AP): Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya of Belarus captured her first major title with a win in the women’s aerials at the world championships.

Ramanouskaya’s run on Wednesday night eclipsed runner-up Liubov Nikitina of Russia. China’s Xu Mengtao earned the bronze.

Defending champion Ashley Caldwell of Ashburn, Virginia, took fifth in her return from a shoulder injury.

In the men’s competition, Maxim Burov of Russia knocked off Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine. Abramenko was the Olympic gold medal winner at the Pyeongchang Games last February.

Teenager Noe Roth of Switzerland earned the bronze.

South Africa took the series 2-1 and also won the Test and one-day contests.

South Africa couldn’t round off a whitewash in the T20s despite a late half-century by Chris Morris, who hit 55 not out off 29 balls but had too much to do at the end. Morris reached his maiden T20 50 with consecutive sixes off Shaheen Afridi in the final over, when South Africa was left needing 40 runs off the last six balls.

Mohammad Amir took 3-27 to lead Pakistan’s bowlers and Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf collected two wickets each. Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim and Afridi were key for Pakistan in an impressive bowling performance as they restricted