FREESTYLE – Aerials: Australian David Morris has made a brilliant start to his Sochi 2014 Olympic campaign, performing his best jump all year at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Monday night. 

The king of the air nailed his first jump – a back Full-Double Full-Full – to give him direct passage into the finals of the men’s Aerials competition.

“That’s a big weight off the shoulder. I was pretty much satisfied with making the finals today so now my care meter goes down a little bit which is when I generally jump better.

"The pressure’s off and the stress is off. Obviously I want to do really well. Now I’m going to really throw it up there and see how it goes,” Morris said.

The 29-year-old’s overall score was equal highest in qualification, tied with Jia Zongyang who did exactly the same jump, but the Chinese skier was ranked first based on slightly higher form points.

With a 4.425 degree of difficulty, the quad twisting triple somersault was the same trick teammate Lydia Lassila performed to win bronze and create history in the women’s event on Friday.

Lassila had a quick word to Morris after his jump. Morris said she has been a great role model.

“When you watch what she can do it is incredible and she wrote me a little letter this morning saying good luck and some thoughts and things, which is very helpful. 

“When she’s stressing out I help her and when I’m stressing out like today she helps me.”

The charismatic skier from Melbourne was clearly pleased to progress. His early form is already an improvement on his Vancouver 2010 result when he finished in 13th place.

“That has kind of made up for missing the final in Vancouver and to qualify (equal) first rather than just scraping through, I’m really happy.”

Disappointment though for defending Olympic Champion Alexei Grishin (BLR) who missed out on the finals, finishing in 15th place. The 34-year-old crash landed his first jump and stumbled again on his second.

Frustration too for Liu Zhongqing, who also failed to qualify. The Chinese skier is ranked number one in the current World Cup standings.

Final 1 of the men’s Aerials gets underway at 9.30pm (4.30am AEDT Tuesday). Twelve skiers will be whittled down to eight for final 2, then four for final 3 – the super-final - in which the medallists are decided.