Winter Olympics: David Morris medal bid dashed after scoring controversy

Australia’s David Morris controversially failed to make it through the first phase of the aerials finals last night.

David Morris soars between the lights in the aerials final last night. Picture: Getty Images

This one was for mum. But Melbourne’s aerial showman David Morris didn’t get the chance to perform his rare “quin’’ — the eye-popping back double full, double full, full trick — that in layman terms means five twists and three somersaults, hovering somewhere four storeys in the air.

Strategically it was best to leave that super-jump for the super final where he would be up against five other finalists, each having to pull out their most complicated trick — and land it — to win the gold medal.

But Morris was surprisingly bundled out in the first round of the finals, finishing in 10th place and failing to get into the next round of nine.

Observers have queried why Morris wasn’t scored much higher.

In the final Morris landed his back full, double full full trick, but had a bobble on landing, which normally would have got him through.

However, nearly all his opponents landed similar jumps with far clearer landings, except for world No 2 Jia Zongyang, who fell some metres down the hill.

Jia was lucky that the judges ranked the landing with marks between 2.2 and 2.4 — the same as Morris’s landing, but superior form in the air allowed him to climb past the Australian’s score into the vital ninth spot.

The judges deemed that Jia had caught an edge and had landed in control, but Australia’s five-time Olympian Lydia Lassila said “I am in disbelief’’.

Lassila believed that Jia had not been in control on the landing, but there was no recourse for the Australian team to appeal the score. Only the top nine progressed through to the second phase of the finals.

But for Morris, whose mother Margaret has been battling lung and spine cancer, the competition result was put into sharp perspective.

The 33-year-old former gymnastics coach, who won a silver in Sochi four years ago, said this PyeongChang competition was extra meaningful and he had nailed the quin in training just an hour prior to the finals.

He had dearly wanted to show off his five-twisting trick for the television cameras, but knew he had to get to the final round of six to be able to pull it out and be in contention for a medal.

“It’s a little disappointing,” Morris said afterwards. “I really wanted to land the five twists.

“But 10th in the Olympics is fantastic. This is a fantastic competition, everyone’s landing huge jumps.”

As for the scoring, Morris said his coach had asked the judges about Jia’s landing and was satisfied with the explanation.

“I thought I was in, I was surprised by Jia’s score,” he said. “It’s a judged sport. If it had gone my way I wouldn’t be complaining.”

Jia finished with the silver medal behind Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine

Morris, who confessed to shedding a tear or two said: “It can’t be undone. I’ve accepted it. No one needs to be disappointed for me, I’m in a good place.”

Morris also sent his love to his mother, saying the time for being “a heartless and selfish athlete” was over and it was time to focus on her needs.