China's Han wins gold in Olympic men's aerial

Han Xiaopeng of China came from nowhere to win the gold medal in the freestyle skiing men's aerial event on Thursday, just one day after his women compatriots suffered a near-miss from the top podium at the Turin Winter Olympics.

The 22-year-old Han scored a total of 250.77 points from two almost flawless jumps to upset a field of big names including current World Cup leader Kyle Nissen and Alexei Girshin of Belarus, the bronze medalist at the last Games in Salt Lake City.

Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus took the silver with 248.68 points, while the bronze went to Vladimir Lebedev of Russia on 246.76 points. Girshin was fourth and Nissen finished a disappointing fifth.

"I never thought this would happen," said Han after winning the gold. "I feel like I'm in a dream."

Dashinski was the leader after the first jump with 131.42 points, nearly one point ahead of Han. Despite a lower degree of difficulty than Dashinski, however, Han's last jump was judged to be better in take-off, execution and landing.

Han, who was formerly an acrobat, made history on Monday when he, along with teammate Qiu Sen, became the first Chinese men to qualify for an Olympic freestyle aerials final.

"I was so happy to win China its first ever Olympic gold medal in snow events," said Han, who switched to the aerial event from acrobatics in 1995.

"I think the men's aerials is designed for China and I'm happy to be the one to make this a reality," he added.

In Wednesday's women's event, the Chinese trio of Guo Xinxin, Li Nina and Xu Nanan were in top three places after the first jumps, but failed to secure the title following mediocre second jumps.

Han said that he drew a lot of inspiration from the girls' " heroic performance".

"I said to myself yesterday that I would fulfill their dreams. Today, it's a dream come true," he said.

Dashinski blamed judges for his failure to win the gold.

"I was trying to win gold ... but the problem was judging," he said through an interpreter.

"I feel like I am empty. Maybe tomorrow morning when I wake up, I would feel a little bit happy."

Source: Xinhua