Freestyle skiing: China, OAR, Belarus impress in aerials qualifying

By Jack Tarrant PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) - China, Belarus and Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) dominated qualifying for the final of the women’s Olympic aerials at Phoenix Snow Park on Thursday. Those countries have eight of the 12 women who will compete in Friday’s final. Olympic Athlete from Russia Alexandra Orlova recorded the highest score as she attempted a challenging back-lay-full-full that scored 102.22. Her compatriots Kristina Spiridonova and Luibov Nikitina also progressed and OAR are yet to win a gold medal at the Games. China have won Olympic silver in the women’s aerials four times without taking gold. World number one Mengtao Xu scored 99.37 in first qualifying to finish third and reach the final along with her compatriots Zhang Xin and Fanyu Kong. Hanna Huskova of Belarus, ranked second in the world, eased through with a score of 100.45 to qualify in second place and Sochi gold medalist Alla Tsuper joined her compatriot in the final. There was a scary moment at the beginning of the night when Kim Kyoungeun of South Korea landed awkwardly on her arm attempting the low difficulty back-lay. Kim looked in pain and was in tears before waving to the home support and she landed her second jump much to the delight of the crowd. Five-times Olympian Lydia Lassila of Australia failed to land the back-full-double-full and missed out on another final. The 36-year-old, gold medalist in Vancouver eight years ago, looked dejected and is expected to retire after Pyeongchang. Friday’s final begins at 2000 local time (1100GMT). (Reporting by Jack Tarrant, editing by Ed Osmond)