Olympics-Freestyle-Norway's defending champion Ruud through to big air final

By Alvise Armellini and Lisa Richwine

LIVIGNO, Italy Feb 15 -(Reuters) - Defending champion Birk Ruud of Norway on Sunday went through to the Winter Olympics final for freestyle skiing big air, with other frontrunners including American Mac Forehand and New Zealand's Luca Harrington.

Ruud, who came third out of the 12 skiers who qualified for Tuesday's showdown, already has a Milano Cortina gold medal to his name, having won the freestyle slopestyle in which Harrington took bronze.

Forehand led the pack on Sunday followed by Austria's Matej Svancer.

The U.S.'s Troy Podmilsak, leader of the World Cup standings, also made the cut for the final as did Frenchman Mathias Roche, who impressed with the second-highest single score of the night for his first jump.

Ruud was pleased and preparing for a hard-fought contest, saying: "It's going to be tight in the top section and there's going to be a lot of big, big tricks so the plan is just to try and enjoy it and put down my best tricks."

Forehand, who earned his place with the first two jumps, said he took "a chill run" on the third and was not prepared for the weather. "I didn't know it was going to be as cold, so I'm not really wearing much. I'm pretty cold right now," he added.

Home crowd favourite Miro Tabanelli failed to make it through, with a strong first run marred by falls in the next two. American Alex Hall, who won silver in the slopestyle, also did not qualify for the final.

Hundreds watched and cheered the night-time spectacle in the alpine town of Livigno, braving sub-zero temperatures as electronic disco music blared around the course.

The music stopped and the crowd went silent for several tense minutes, however, when Finland's Elias Lajunen, 18, crashed awkwardly at the end of the first round.

Lajunen gave a thumbs up as he was taken away on a stretcher. A spokesman for Finland's Olympic team said the teenager had been taken to hospital but was conscious and could move his hands and legs.