Alexei Grishin soars to freestyle aerials gold medal

Belarus' Grishin wins dramatic aerials

Belarus won their first gold medal of the Games as Alexei Grishin triumphed in the men's aerials freestyle skiing event on Thursday.

Grishin landed both his jumps cleanly to amass a total of 248.41 points, just pipping the United States' Jeret Peterson by 1.2 points.

Peterson landed his trademark 'hurricane' - a triple back flip with five twists - but it was not enough.

China's Liu Zhongqing held off some stiff competition to take the bronze.

Canada's Kyle Nissen led the field after the first round of jumps, but he slumped to fifth place overall despite the support of the bulk of the 9,000 fans at Cypress Mountain.

"I didn't feel like it was an amazing jump in the air and when I saw the replay I knew," said Nissen.

Grishin, 30, was in second place after his first effort but held his nerve to land his crucial second effort.

"I still don't really feel it because I'm still a bit in shock," said Grishin.

Peterson's got the highest score - 128.62 - for any of the 24 jumps in the final but Grishin's consistency won the day.

Nevertheless, Peterson was ecstatic to win a medal of any colour after being sent home from the last Games under a cloud following a fight in the early hours of the morning.

"I'm so happy," said Peterson, who finished in seventh place in 2006 amid reports that he had been forced to deal with the emotional fallout of a close friend's suicide shortly before the start of the Olympics.

"This is the best day of my life. It's my reward for fighting through everything."