Olympics: McMorris sneaks into final at death

Olympics: McMorris sneaks into final at death

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia - Canadian two-time X-Games champion Mark McMorris sneaked into the Sochi Winter Olympics snowboard slopestyle final on Saturday after a daring last run.

The 20-year-old came into the competition as one of the favourites for gold but failed to qualify directly for the final following Thursday's heats.

He complained then that he had been unfairly scored by the judges and the pressure was on in the second-chance semi-final on Saturday after he made a mistake on his first run, leaving him down in ninth place with only the top four joining the eight riders already qualified for the final.

But McMorris pulled out a score of 89.25 on his second run to take third place in the semi-final.

Britain's Billy Morgan topped the charts with 90.75 while American Sage Kotsenburg (90.50), who had also complained about Thursday's scoring, and Japan's Yuki Kadono (84.75) also progressed to the Saturday afternoon final.

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