Madonna di Campiglio, Italy - 2005 FIS World Champion Nina Li successfully defended her title Saturday at the 2007 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships at Madonna di Campiglio. Ranked 4th after the first jump, she reclaimed the gold with a solid second jump as leading athletes made mistakes. Twenty-four year-old Assoli ‘Oly’ Slivets of Belarus took the silver while the World Cup ski season's star, Jacqui Cooper of Australia, was left with bronze.
While Li also claimed silver at the 2006 Olympics, it was the first medal for Slivets at any major event. Bronze medalist Cooper, the 1999 FIS World Champion, has fought back this season after severe injuries in the past several seasons and clinched the FIS World Cup aerials title, the fourth in her career.
Hen wins gold for the men
The first Chinese male to win Olympic gold in the Winter Games, Xiaopeng Han claimed the men's aerials FIS World Champion title, becoming the first Chinese male to win the World Champion title in Freestyle Skiing. Ranked only 5th after the first jump, Han emerged with the gold medal as the top four athletes after the first run all failed to some degree in their second jump.
Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus captured silver; he also won silver in the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games behind Han. Steve Omischl (CAN), defending champion and 2007 aerials World Cup winner who led after the first jump, had to be content with a bronze medal. Only the top 12 athletes advanced from the qualification on Friday afternoon to the finals held Saturday afternoon.
“I put myself in a position to (successfully) defend my title,” said Omischl, 28. As the last jumper in the second and final round, Omischl felt his skis bounce a bit and shoot out in front of him on the landing. Though disappointed with not winning, Omischl said he can’t be too disappointed about the year, after an injury-plagued 2006 when he placed 20th at the Olympics. “I wanted to take the year off, so if I can still have great results and not train as hard as I can, that’s a good sign,” said Omischl.
