LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion Su Yiming delivered China's first medal of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday, claiming bronze in a fiercely contested men's snowboard big air final defined by soaring difficulty.
With consistency proving decisive in the high-stakes showdown, 21-year-old Su struck a careful balance between ambition and control after rebounding from a fall in qualification to reach the final.
He opened with a clean and confident 1980-degree spin, earning 88.25 points, but could not fully capitalize thereafter, touching down with his hand on both his second and third runs for scores of 73.75 and 80.25 respectively. Under the big air format that counts the best two of three runs, Su totaled 168.50 points to secure third place.
The level of competition underscored the rapid progression of the discipline. At Beijing 2022, Su captured gold with a pair of 1800s. This time, eight riders had already landed 1980s in qualification alone.
Japan's Kira Kimura took gold with 179.50 points. After posting the top score of 89.00 in his opening run and stumbling in his second, Kimura sealed victory with a near-flawless third run worth 90.50. His teammate Ryoma Kimata claimed silver on the strength of two solid early runs.
Japan had four riders in the final, but qualification leader Hiroto Ogiwara faltered on all three attempts to finish last among 12 riders, while another Japanese Taiga Hasegawa placed second from bottom following two costly mistakes.
Su will return to action on February 16 for the men's slopestyle qualification.
Earlier in the day, China's freestyle skiing star Gu Ailing advanced to Monday's women's freeski slopestyle final, putting the 22-year-old in position to challenge for what could be the country's first gold medal of the Games.
