American Stone wins Olympic freestyle aerials gold

Nikki Stone of the United States nailed two high-difficulty, near error-free jumps Wednesday to win the women's aerials gold medal at the Olympic freestyle skiing venue in Nagano.

The 27-year-old Stone, the 1995 world champion and current World Cup leader, took the lead with a first-round jump featuring two flips and three twists and cleanly landed an equally difficult second jump with three flips, one in the tuck position, and one twist in the second round.

Stone combined high marks of 98.15 and 94.85 for a winning total of 193.00 points at the competition held at Iizuna Kogen in Nagano.

China's Xu Nannan, who topped Monday's elimination round, placed fourth in the first round and moved up by posting the day's highest points of 99.40 on her second attempt to win the silver medal with a total of 186.97 points

It was the third silver medal for China, who won the other two in Tuesday evening's short track speed skating.

Colette Brand of Switzerland took bronze with 171.83 points. (Kyodo News)

Results of freestyle skiing women's aerials finals Wednesday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Iizuna Kogen, Nagano:

1. Nikki Stone, U.S. 193.00 points (first run 98.15, second run 94.85)

2. Xu Nannan, China 186.97 (87.57, 99.40)

3. Colette Brand, Switzerland 171.83 (87.88, 83.95)

4. Tetiana Kozachenko, Ukraine 167.32 (81.49, 85.83)

5. Alla Tsuper, Ukraine 166.12 (82.18, 83.94)

6. Hilde Lid, Norway 160.18 (74.82, 85.36)

7. Guo Dandan, China 159.74 (89.81, 69.93)

8. Yuliia Kliukova, Ukraine 153.15 (68.76, 84.39)

9. Veronica Brenner, Canada 151.15 (60.75, 90.40)

10. Olena Yunchik, Ukraine 139.05 (56.84, 82.21)

11. Michele Rohrbach, Switzerland 129.36 (61.48, 67.88)

12. Ji Xiaoou, China Did not start

Bergoust wins men's aerials for U.S. double gold

World silver medalist Eric Bergoust of the United States pulled off two near-perfect jumps Wednesday to win the men's aerials title of the Nagano Olympic freestyle skiing competition.

Bergoust, who currently sits in third place in this season's World Cup standings, made two triple flip jumps -- both with four twists -- to amass a record combined total of 255.64 points for the gold medal at the Iizuna Kogen ski area in northern Nagano.

The 28-year-old improved on the previous world record score set by Nicolas Fontaine of Canada when he won the world championships held here last February by 0.66 point.

Bergoust received perfect 7.0 points from three of the five judges for air and form and full 3.0 points from both landing judges to grab the lead with the day's best 133.05 points after the first jump, in which he put the double twist in the middle flip.

The silver medal went to Frenchman Sebastien Foucras, a former gymnast, with 248.79 points while Dmitri Dashchinsky of Belarus took the bronze another eight points behind.

Fontaine, the current World Cup leader and 1997 World Cup winner, stood in third place after the first round but landed on his back for the second aerial to end in 10th out of 12 finalists.

Earlier, American Nikki Stone, the 1995 world champion and current World Cup leader, nailed two high-difficulty, near error-free jumps to win the women's aerials gold medal.

The 27-year-old Stone took the lead with a first-round jump featuring two flips and three twists and cleanly landed an equally difficult second jump with three flips, one in the tuck position, and one twist in the second round.

Stone combined high marks of 98.15 and 94.85 for a winning total of 193.00 points.

China's Xu Nannan, who topped Monday's elimination round, placed fourth in the first round and moved up by posting the day's highest score of 99.40 on her second attempt to win the silver medal with a total of 186.97 points

It was the third silver medal for China, who won the other two in Tuesday evening's short track speed skating.

Colette Brand of Switzerland took bronze with 171.83 points. (Kyodo News)

Results of freestyle skiing men's aerials finals Wednesday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Iizuna Kogen, Nagano:

1. Eric Bergoust, U.S. 255.64 points (first run 133.05, second run 122.59)

2. Sebastien Foucras, France 248.79 (126.15, 122.64)

3. Dmitri Dashchinsky, Belarus 240.79 (118.86, 121.93)

4. Ales Valenta, Czech Republic 232.25 (115.22, 117.03)

5. Britt Swartley, U.S. 231.61 (121.70, 109.91)

6. Alexandre Mikhailov, Russia 229.98 (111.17, 118.81)

7. Christian Rijavec, Austria 227.60 (112.79, 114.81)

8. Aleksei Grishin, Belarus 220.99 (100.84, 120.15)

9. Stanislav Kravchuk, Ukraine 219.94 (107.35, 112.59)

10. Nicolas Fontaine, Canada 216.93 (123.71, 93.22)

11. Jeff Bean, Canada 210.77 (118.66, 92.11)

12. Andy Capicik, Canada 209.01 (90.55, 118.46)