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Chinese aerialists came for gold but ended up with silver, says coach
2006-02-22 20:41:03 Xinhua English

SAUZE D'OULX JOUVENCEAUX, Italy, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese women's freestyle aerials team ended its Turin Olympic trip as Li Nina won a silver medal here on Wednesday.

Dustin Adam Wilson, head coach of the Chinese team, was obviously disappointed.

"They are fantastic, they won the first round and they came back in the second. They did great, obviously. But actually I'm disappointed because we came here to win," said the Canadian.

Guo Xinxin, leader after the first jump with 103.17 points, crash-landed her second jump and fell to sixth place with 174.85 points, 27.70 behind the winner.

"She landed then she fell. It happened to Alla Tsuper (Belarus)in her first jump. Sometimes it just happened," said Wislon.

Li Nina reduced the difficulty of her second jump from 3.90 to 3.525 for a safe finish.

"We changed the difficulty because we didn't think she needed to do it. The jump (with current difficulty) she was comfortable. She was in the lead (second place in the first round). That's the strategy and we didn't wanna take the risk."

On champion Leu Evelyne of Switzerland, Wilson said: "She is strong and is one of our main competitors."

Lucinda Rebecca Thomson, fitness coach of the Chinese team, said: "We got beat but I'm very happy with the girls' performances."

"We, honestly, two and a half months ago, we didn't expect (Li)Nina to be where she is today. She got very bad back injury. I'm very happy for Nina and her hard work to get to the podium."

"Thanks for (Xu) Nannan, she did very hard to bring her knee back and for her she did fantastic today. And (Guo) Xinxin, with the new degree of difficulty, she got to the landing much better. The girls did the best today," she added.

Li's silver medal leveled China's historic performance in the sport when Xu Nannan was runner-up at the 1998 Nagano Games. Enditem (By Gong Bing )

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