By Winni Zhou and Mari Saito
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) – China took the top two spots in the men’s freeski aerials qualifying session on Tuesday with Pycheongchang 2018 gold medallist Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine also reaching the final.
Veteran skiers Qi Guangpu and Jia Zongyang, who teamed up to take silver in the mixed team event last week, nailed their back full-double full-full jumps and scored 127.88 and 125.67 respectively to march into Wednesday’s final.
China has a long history of dominating the acrobatic skiing aerials event by winning four medals in the men’s event in the previous four Olympic Games. The home team also swept the podium at a World Cup event in Deer Valley last month.
The crowd roared for Jia and Qi after they vaulted into the air and landed smoothly, with Jia’s golden helmet glinting under the bright stadium lights.
Abramenko delivered a more complicated back full-full-double full, with a higher degree of difficulty at 4.525, to secure his place in the final with 120.36.
American Christopher Lillis, who has already won gold at the Beijing Games in the mixed team event, landed a clean jump to score 119.91 and also advanced to the final.
There were a fair number of wipeouts on Tuesday, with several athletes crash landing on the hard packed snow in Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.
China’s Sun Jiaxu, who is second in the World Cup standings, failed to qualify after crashing face first into the snow. He rubbed his right shoulder in pain as he walked off the course.
First-time Olympian Oleksandr Okipniuk of Ukraine wowed the crowd with a bullet-fast triple somersault, earning a score of 125.00 and applause for landing the night’s most difficult trick as he booked his ticket to the final.
Pyeongchang bronze medallist, Russian Ilia Burov, also easily made it through the second round of qualifiers on Tuesday but his younger brother Maxim failed to advance.
The qualifications were held on a frigid night with temperatures dropping to -17 degrees Celsius (1.4°F) and southwesterly winds forcing some competitors to wipe out on the icy powder.
The top 12 skiers advanced to Wednesday’s final.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Mari Saito; Editing by Ken Ferris)
