‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Worthington Lands a Disappointing Fifth : Freestyle skiing: Top American aerial skier finishes behind Canada’s ‘Quebec Air Force’ after shaky first routine.

Trace Worthington lay down on the job for only an instant Thursday but they docked him for it, big time.

Worthington, the best aerial skier in the United States and one of the best in the world, couldn’t stick the landing on the first of his two jumps in the freestyle finals and finished out of the medals. Not far out, but out nonetheless.

Andreas Schoenbaechler of Switzerland and two-thirds of the “Quebec Air Force,” Canadians Philippe LaRoche and Lloyd Langlois, finished 1-2-3. Worthington settled for fifth, only 4.25 points behind Langlois and less than a point behind Andrew Capicik, the third member of the Quebec Air Force that ranks first through third in World Cup standings.

The margin between third and fifth was less than the margin between first and second.

“In our sport, that’s like the Italian cross-country skier winning by a ski length (in the men’s 40-kilometer relay Tuesday),” Worthington said. “I lost by a ski length, is the way I look at it.”

Lina Tcherjazova of Uzbekistan, who had barely qualified for the finals after falling on her first jump in Tuesday’s eliminations, came back with an impressive opening jump and won the women’s competition. Marie Lindgren of Sweden was second and Hilde Synnove Lid of Norway was third.

Aerial skiing, which made its debut here as a medal sport, requires the skier to launch off a snow ramp and execute somersaults, flips and twists while in the air. Seven judges consider the takeoff, height, distance, execution and landing in giving scores.

Worthington’s landing was his downfall, so to speak, Thursday. He chose to do his harder jump--a triple flip with four twists--first and nearly pulled it off. He got plenty of height off the ramp and performed his tricks well. But on touchdown, he leaned back onto his skis, his back grazing the snow before he stood up. There’s no telling how he would have scored with a solid landing, but it probably would have put him in the top three.

Missing a medal, though, didn’t bother him as much as missing the jump.

“It’s always disappointing when you don’t put down your best jump,” he said. “(It) could obviously have been better with a better landing. I just simply made a mistake on the landing. That’s disappointing, but by no means am I disappointed that I didn’t win a medal.

“Everything was right on the money as I came into my landing, and all it takes is a little bit of off balance. Everything is pretty precise in this sport.”

Worthington’s second jump--a double flip with three twists--earned him the third-highest score of the round.

“I had no pressure on me, nothing to lose,” he said. “It was a fun jump and I had a good time, but I knew before I left the jump that I couldn’t get a medal, much less win. So I was just having fun on that jump.”

Worthington, the Canadians and top-qualifying Alexei Parfenkov of Belarus had been viewed as the medal contenders going into the competition.

Qualifying marks do not carry over, however, and Schoenbaechler made the most of that. He jumped into the lead with his first effort--a triple flip with three twists--then watched as nine other skiers failed to put up a better score. And he did the same in the second round, when he executed an even more difficult triple with four twists, earning 121.48 points, most of the day. He finished with 234.67.

LaRoche wound up with 228.64, Langlois with 222.44.

Parfenkov, who had led after the eliminations, botched the landing on his first jump, scored poorly on his second and finished last. Americans Eric Bergoust and Kris Fedderson were seventh and 11th.

Cherjazova’s performance in the women’s competition made her the first Olympic medalist for her country since the breakup of the Soviet Union. She impressed the judges with her triple flips, while the rest of the field was doing doubles.

She pretty much settled things with the first jump of the day, a back layout with three flips, scoring 92.92 points, most of the day. She missed the landing on her second jump, but her two-jump total of 166.84 held up anyway.

Lindgren finished with 165.88 points, Lid with 164.13.

Tracy Evans, the only U.S. entrant, had qualified out of the B group and finished seventh.