Han Xiaopeng
China wins first ever Olympic snow gold
Han Xiaopeng claimed China's first ever Olympic snow gold medal by nailing both
his landings at the men's freestyle aerials of the Turin Games on Thursday
night.
TURIN, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Han Xiaopeng claimed China's first ever
Olympic snow gold medal by nailing both his landings at the men's freestyle
aerials of the Turin Games on Thursday night.
The 22-year-old stunned even himself by beating Belarus' Dmitri Dashinski to
lift his first international title, as well as China's first ever men's title in
Winter Olympics.
Ranked first in the qualifying round, Han was second after the first jumps, but
his second leap earned 120.24 points to make it 250.77 for two jumps, edging
final jumper Dashinski by 2.09 points.
Dashinski had to settle for silver and Russia's Vladimir Lebedev took bronze
with 246.76 points.
"I had never thought this would happen," said Han. "I feel like I am in a
dream."
"I think the aerials is designed for Chinese and I'm happy to be the one to make
it happen," said the acrobat-turned-aerialist, who finished 24th in the 2002
Games and 20th in the 2005 world championships.
The silver medalist was not happy about a high score given to Han's second jump,
rated 4.175 out of five in degree of difficulty.
"I feel like I am empty," said the Belarusian. "I thought nobody could win the
Olympic Games with a back-lay-double-full-full (jump) but sometimes you are
surprised with the jury's judgement."
Han's gold made up for the painful loss by the four Chinese women's aerialists,
who conceded the gold to Swiss Evelyne Leu on Wednesday despite their high World
Cup rankings.
As fireworks were set off to celebrate the end of Olympic freestyle skiing
competition, a loud bang was also heard on Fabio Filzi Piazza, a resident
compound only about 500 meters to the south of the Olympic Main Press Center.
It was a controlled explosion on a suspicious car parked at the entrance of the
compound after police received a report that the car had been abandoned with
engine running.
Police didn't find anything suspicious inside after they blew open the left door
of the car and blocked the streets around the compound for three hours.
Police captain Cesario Totaro told swarming reporters that the Italian police
should take extra precaution during the Olympics.
In the most stunning victory in the Turin Games so far, Japanese Shizuka Arakawa
denied a Russian clean sweep of Olympic figure skating titles as she skated a
clean and elegant free skate to win the ladies' top honor.
Arakawa scored 125.32 points for her free skate to make it 191.34 in total,
winning Asia's first ever Olympic figure skating title and Japan's first medal
in this Olympics.
"I cann't believe it," exclaimed Arakawa. "I made a mistake in the program but I
could skate with pleasure. I think I will realize that I have won a gold in the
next two or three days.
American Sasha Cohen, first after the short program, crashed two of her jumps
and had to settle for a silver with 183.36 points.
Russian veteran Irina Slutskaya, a pre-race favorite, took the bronze with
181.44 points following a botched landing, failing to add a ladies' title to the
Russian golden collection of pairs, men's singles and ice dancing.
Earlier Russia won its eighth gold of the Turin Olympics when it trounced
defending champion Germany by 50.7 seconds in the 4x6km biathlon relay.
France finished third.
In the women's curling final, Sweden edged out Switzerland 7-6.Canada lifted a
bronze with a 11-5 victory over Norway.
Daniela Meuli, the snowboard world champion in the women's parallel giant
slalom, gave Switzerland a second gold in as many days. Philipp Schoch won the
men's event Wednesday, with elder brother Simon winning silver.
Meuli nipped Amelie Kober of Germany in the final and Doris Guenther of Austria
bagged a bronze.
A doping scandal involving Austrians refused to fade, five daysafter Italian
police confiscated syringes, medication and a blood transfusion device from
Austrian skiers' quarters.
Italian prosecutors met Austrian ski chief Peter Schroecksnadelover the possible
use of illegal substances or methods by Olympic athletes.
