Anna Gasser grabs Big Air World Cup title in Beijing

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Olympic gold medalist Anna Gasser claimed her first Big Air World Cup victory this season at the iconic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing on Saturday night.

The 27-year-old got the title with a total of 182.25 points, beating Japan's first world champion Miyabi Onitsuka by 6.25 points.

Laurie Blouin from Canada finished third, trailing by over 20 points.

"I had a really good competition," said Gasser. "I'm really happy I could land my first round."

"All the girls are riding really good in practice, so I knew I had to go straight in doing a cab double ten in the first round and then my safe trick cab double nine," she added.

The Olympic champion, who was crowned in PyeongChang where Big Air was introduced to the Winter Games for the first time in history, almost made sure of the victory after jumping to court-best 94.00 points on her first attempt.

Austria's Anna Gasser becomes the first Olympic Big Air champion after winning gold in the ladies' inaugural final during the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, February 22, 2018. /VCG File Photo

She added more weight through her second jump after scoring 88.25, though her third and last jump was a disaster with the score of 27.50, which just came out to be denied.

"(In) my last round, I still tried double ten but unfortunately, I couldn't land it. But it was enough to win," said the Austrian, who finished the third in last World Cup three weeks ago in Modena, Italy, trailing two Japanese riders.

Reira Iwabuchi, who dominated the first two World Cups earlier this season and qualified on top for Saturday's final, came out the last out of six finalists on 137.50 after committing a big crash on her final jump.

The 17-year-old sensation is one of the biggest stories of Big Air so far this season after lifting trophies in both Cardrona and Modena.

On the men's part, Swedish Thorgren triumphed with a total score of 184.00 points, after finishing a backside 1440 nosegrab in his first jump and a frontside triple cork 1440 mute in the third.

Air+Style Beijing, which was initially introduced to China in 2010 as one of the three Air&Style stops around the world and upgraded last year to be a recognized FIS-A official event, is the third stop of the Big Air World Cups this season. The two-day tournament has drawn about 70 athletes from 23 countries and regions.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency