BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) --Chinese freeskier Gu Ailing won her second silver medal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in the women's big air on Monday.
Gu, who had not contested a major women's big air event since winning gold at the Beijing Games, finished with 179.00 points, just 1.75 behind the winner, Megan Oldham of Canada.
Dutch short track speed skater Xandra Velzeboer captured her second gold medal of the Games with victory in the women's 1,000 meters.
Earlier in the men's 5,000m relay semifinals, the Chinese quartet of Liu Shaoang, Lin Xiaojun, Li Wenlong and Zhang Bohao kept a low profile in the early stages before launching several overtakes in the middle and latter laps to briefly take the lead. However, on the final lap, Liu slipped unexpectedly on a curve, allowing Canada and Italy to seize the opportunity and finish as the top two in the group to qualify for Final A, while China missed out in 6:55.278.
In the pairs figure skating, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara bounced back from a fifth-place finish in the short program to triumph with 231.24 points, thanks to their competition-high 158.13 in the free skate.
China's returning Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong placed fifth on 208.64, moving one place up from the short program.
Six gold medals were determined on Monday, with American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor bagging home the women's monobob title with a combined time of 3:57.93, while Austria scored 568.7 points to clinch the inaugural men's ski jumping super team gold.
