Snowboard-Japan's Kimura wins gold in Big Air

LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 7 - Japan's Kira Kimura won the gold medal in the men's Big Air snowboarding event at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday.

Ryoma Kimata of Japan earned the silver medal. Su Yiming, the defending Big Air champion, took the bronze under the night skies in the Italian mountain town of Livigno.

Kimura stumbled in his second run of three runs but impressed the judges with a difficult switch backside 1900 to secure his first Olympic gold. He smiled broadly and clapped his hands on the podium at the medal ceremony.

After daring a very technical spin on his first run, China's Su fell on his hands on the second round which hurt his chances of successfully defending his title. The winners were determined by the combined score of their two best runs. REUTERS