MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, Italy -- Chinese skiers Han Xiaopeng and Li Nina swept the aerials competitions Saturday at the freestyle world championships.
Dale Begg-Smith of Australia and Jennifer Heil of Canada won the
dual moguls.
Olympic champion Han won the men's aerials with 240.86 points.
Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus was second with 236.42, matching his Olympic silver medal, and World Cup champion Steve Omischl of Canada was third with 235.81.
Jeret Peterson of the United States finished seventh after
failing to land his Hurricane jump.
"I got a little bit too much speed on take off and I lost it,"
said Peterson, who also crashed while attempting the jump at the
2005 worlds.
In the women's competition, Olympic silver medalist Li defended
her title with 188.05 points. Assoli Slivets of Belarus was second
with 186.55 and World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper of Australia was
third with 182.58.
Emily Cook was the top American in sixth. She landed her full
double full jump for the first time in competition.
Cook missed the 2003 and 2004 seasons due to injury.
"It's been a long road but I finally feel like I'm
progressing," she said.
Begg-Smith, the Olympic champion in moguls, beat Guilbaut Colas
of France in the duals final, while Ruslan Sharifullin of Russia
took the bronze medal.
Heil, also the Olympic champion in moguls, edged Shannon Bahrke
of the United States, with Margarita Marbler of Austria taking the
bronze.
Bahrke won a silver medal in moguls at the 2002 Salt Lake City
Olympics and finished fourth Friday.
"Duals is usually not my best event. But I told myself I've got
to do better than fourth and I just came out on fire," Bahrke
said. "This is huge for me."