features
Aerialist Dave Morris's Spectacular Jump
Feb 24, 2010 / 02:59:31 AM
Words: Don St.Pierre
Australia's David Morris jumped out of his mind on both jumps today at the men's qualifications at Cypress Mountain.Morris, who has been competing at World Cup less than two years, stood at the start knowing it would take nothing less than near perfection to qualify in the top 12 to go to finals. On the first jump Morris performed a triple twisting triple back flip scoring a commendable 105.09. With the pressure on in a big way for the second jump Morris, last man to go, was poised in the start. Timofei Slivets from Belorussia, sitting in the hot seat in 12th position, with a total of 221.91 waited nervously in the finish area. Morris has never performed a full double-full full (a quad twisting triple back flip) at the elite level of competition before and has only ever done a handful on snow, but he took it to the sky straight as a pin and landed with confidence shown by his more seasoned competitors. Slivets had a real reason for concern as the crowd went mad for this rooky from Australia but it wasn't to be.
Morris narrowly missed out on a finals appearance at these Olympics, scoring a 115.93 for a total of 221.02 just .89 behind Slivets. It was a bittersweet moment as Slivets' heart started again and Morris, showing no remorse with his grand performance, celebrated knowing how good that jump felt and having done everything he could and maybe a little more, on the day, when it counted. The favourite fails to qualifyA major upset for the day came when the current World Cup leader Anton Kushnir, also of Belorussia, who hasn't missed a jump all season and was the leader after the first round, lost a ski after landing his second jump a bit imbalanced and finished up the day in 15th position. This removes a major threat to the field as he's been dominating the sport this year, wining four out of the six World Cups. Another less surprising turn came when the reigning gold medal holder Xiaopeng Han also failed to qualify. Since wining the gold in Torino Han has been unable to find his form.
The gold open to anyoneGood news for Canada's Olympic aerialists, with all three athletes qualifying for finals. 32 year old Steve Omischl, who's amassed 20 World Cup podiums, and 31 year old Kyle Nissen who's spent 11 years on World Cup circuit and placed fifth at Torino in 2006, along with 27 year old Warren Shouldice who placed sixth at Torino, will all have the chance to improve upon their Olympic results from Italy.
Another big coup is the Americans, who haven't been able to find their feet at the lead up World Cups but were able to turn that around today with Ryan St.Onge taking second and Jeret 'Speedy' Peterson taking fifth. Of the five nations with athletes in the finals (Canada, USA, China, Switzerland and Belorussia) it's really anyone's game and will come down to who can perform at their best when it counts. It's sure to be a stellar finals.
The final will take place on February 25 at 6:00pm Vancouver time.
All the latest results and medal tally
The 2010 Australian Winter Olympic Team
LiveBlog commentary of Olympic events
tags: olympic, feature, aerials, mens, dave, morris, qualification, finals, photo, photos, features
