Winter Olympics 2022 - Qi Guangpu wins gold in tense, error-strewn men's aerials final

ByLewis Mason

Updated 16/02/2022 at 14:16 GMT

Three jumpers failed to land cleanly in the super-final as Qi Guangpu took the gold medal, with defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko coming second. The Chinese jumper lived up to his billing as favourite, but his compatriot and fellow strong qualifier Jia Zongyang crashed out in the first phase of the final, which saw Ilia Burov of the Russian Olympic Committee take bronze.

China’s dominance of the individual aerials in Beijing has been confirmed, with Qi Guangpu winning the men’s event, after his compatriot Xu Mengtao took the women’s title.

Twelve athletes started the final at the Genting Snow Park, with Guangpu Qi and his team-mate, Zongyang Jia, arriving as the early favourites having made it through as the best two qualifiers.

The first two rounds were all about deciding which six competitors would progress as the super-finalists to a one jump shootout to decide where the medals would be going.

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A different manoeuver was required of each athlete for each jump they made throughout the final with their performances marked across three categories: air, form and landing.

Justin Schoenefeld - who was part of the USA team to take gold in the first ever team aerials event in Beijing - set an early marker of 120.36, giving the rest of the field a target to aim at.

Swiss jumper Pirmin Werner rose to Schoenefeld’s early challenge by carding a score of 126.24 in the first round, while Christian Lillis continued his superb form in Beijing with 125.67.

Ukrainian Oleksandr Okipniuk put in a performance which was ever so eye-catching, with a solid take off and magnificent skill in the air but as he landed, his weight over the tips of his skis threw him into a front flip. As magnificent as it looked, that cost him points, to leave him with 91.40.

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Okipniuk’s compatriot and defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko enjoyed a steady start to card 123.53.

Guangpu and Zongyang lived up to their early billing as favourites with first round jumps which kept them firmly in the mix to progress in the top six, but Werner held onto top spot going into round two.

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Stanislau Hladchenka from Belarus got the second round going with a strong jump but he was only able to marginally improve on his first attempt, leaving him out of the top six.

Schoenefeld came back stronger to put himself in with a chance of qualification with a score of 123.53 after landing his back full-double full-full routine.

The Eurosport commentary team was astounded by the quality of competition as Ilia Burov of the Russian Olympic Committee was seen setting a new standard” after going to the top of the leaderboard with a score of 129.50 after landing a hugely difficult quin-twisting triple somersault.

Werner failed to improve on his first round score after including a double twist in his third somersault, before Abramenko also fell short of his first attempt.

American Eric Loughran’s competition was over after a landing failure on his second attempt, while 2014 bronze medallist Zongyang over rotated his next jump for the shock of the day as one of the best qualifiers crashed out.

After an exhilarating first phase of the final, Burov, Werner, Lillis, Qi, Abramenko and Schoenefeld proved to be the top six to progress through to the one jump medal shootout, where their scores were taken back to zero with everyone receiving a clean slate to jump from.

Schoenefeld was first to jump in the super-final, but after five full twists in the somersault, he made uncharacteristic mistakes on landing, over-rotating before putting both hands down - leaving him with a score of 106.50.

With one last chance to save his Olympic title, Abramenko also was left cursing his landing after touching the ground with a hand, giving him a lower than expected score of 116.50, but nonetheless a total which would get him on the podium.

China’s Qi Guangpu became the first of the super-finalists to land their jump, putting the double world champion in the driving seat with a massive score of 129.00.

Lillis had his head in his hands after seeing his chances of a medal disappear as he fell backwards on landing.

Werner punched the air in frustration after scoring just 111.50, leaving Burov as the final man to jump, knowing what he needed to do to take victory.

The Russian approached with confidence but performed a routine at a lower difficulty level than leader Guangpu, which restricted the score he could receive, settling for 114.93 and a bronze medal.

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