It was Qi’s second medal at these games, following a silver in Aerials Mixed. After part one of the final he wasn’t even ahead. There world champion Ilia Burow (ROC) took the lead with 129.50 points, ahead of the Swiss Pirmin Werner and Christopher Lillis (USA).
Six times full risk and highest level of difficulty
In the all-important third jump, all six finalists took full risks. All presented jumps with the highest possible level of difficulty 5.0 – Lillis as well as his compatriot Justin Schoenefeld could not stand their jump correctly and missed the hoped-for medal.
“Master Qi” managed the insole most perfectly with four turns and an incredible five screws. Defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko from Ukraine came closest to his 129.00 points (116.50 points). The bronze medal remained for Burow with 114.93 points. Pirmin Werner narrowly missed out on the precious metal in fourth place.
Zongyang Jia lived up to expectations
Zongyang Jia, the Chinese’s second big hope for a medal, was surprisingly absent when the second final was decided. He couldn’t stand his second jump, the 123.45 points from the first attempt were not enough to place in the top six. Seventh place for him, and the Swiss Noe Roth didn’t make it either with 122.13 points.
German starters were not at the start. In the women’s category, ski freestyler Xu Mengtao won the planned gold in the aerials competition for host China on Monday (February 14, 2022).