Han Xiaopeng£¨Photo: Xinhua£©

Han Xiaopeng£¨Photo: Xinhua £©

Related: Han Xiaopeng enjoys being darkest horse

    TURIN, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Han Xiaopeng claimed China's first ever Olympic snow gold medal by nailing both his landings at the men's freestyle aerials of the Turin Games on Thursday night.

    The 22-year-old stunned even himself by beating Belarus' Dmitri Dashinski to lift his first international title, as well as China's first ever men's title in Winter Olympics.

    Ranked first in the qualifying round, Han was second after the first jumps, but his second leap earned 120.24 points to make it 250.77 for two jumps, edging final jumper Dashinski by 2.09 points.

    Dashinski had to settle for silver and Russia's Vladimir Lebedev took bronze with 246.76 points.

    "I had never thought this would happen," said Han. "I feel like I am in a dream."

    "I think the aerials is designed for Chinese and I'm happy to be the one to make it happen," said the acrobat-turned-aerialist, who finished 24th in the 2002 Games and 20th in the 2005 world championships.

    The silver medalist was not happy about a high score given to Han's second jump, rated 4.175 out of five in degree of difficulty.

    "I feel like I am empty," said the Belarusian. "I thought nobody could win the Olympic Games with a back-lay-double-full-full (jump) but sometimes you are surprised with the jury's judgement."

    Han's gold made up for the painful loss by the four Chinese women's aerialists, who conceded the gold to Swiss Evelyne Leu on Wednesday despite their high World Cup rankings.

    As fireworks were set off to celebrate the end of Olympic freestyle skiing competition, a loud bang was also heard on Fabio Filzi Piazza, a resident compound only about 500 meters to the south of the Olympic Main Press Center.

    It was a controlled explosion on a suspicious car parked at the entrance of the compound after police received a report that the car had been abandoned with engine running.

    Police didn't find anything suspicious inside after they blew open the left door of the car and blocked the streets around the compound for three hours.

    Police captain Cesario Totaro told swarming reporters that the Italian police should take extra precaution during the Olympics.

    In the most stunning victory in the Turin Games so far, Japanese Shizuka Arakawa denied a Russian clean sweep of Olympic figure skating titles as she skated a clean and elegant free skate to win the ladies' top honor.

    Arakawa scored 125.32 points for her free skate to make it 191.34 in total, winning Asia's first ever Olympic figure skating title and Japan's first medal in this Olympics.

    "I cann't believe it," exclaimed Arakawa. "I made a mistake in the program but I could skate with pleasure. I think I will realize that I have won a gold in the next two or three days.

    American Sasha Cohen, first after the short program, crashed two of her jumps and had to settle for a silver with 183.36 points.

    Russian veteran Irina Slutskaya, a pre-race favorite, took the bronze with 181.44 points following a botched landing, failing to add a ladies' title to the Russian golden collection of pairs, men's singles and ice dancing.

    Earlier Russia won its eighth gold of the Turin Olympics when it trounced defending champion Germany by 50.7 seconds in the 4x6km biathlon relay.

    France finished third.

    In the women's curling final, Sweden edged out Switzerland 7-6.Canada lifted a bronze with a 11-5 victory over Norway.

    Daniela Meuli, the snowboard world champion in the women's parallel giant slalom, gave Switzerland a second gold in as many days. Philipp Schoch won the men's event Wednesday, with elder brother Simon winning silver.

    Meuli nipped Amelie Kober of Germany in the final and Doris Guenther of Austria bagged a bronze.

    A doping scandal involving Austrians refused to fade, five daysafter Italian police confiscated syringes, medication and a blood transfusion device from Austrian skiers' quarters.

    Italian prosecutors met Austrian ski chief Peter Schroecksnadelover the possible use of illegal substances or methods by Olympic athletes. Enditem