Troy Murphy, of the United States, trains ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Troy Murphy of Bethel picked a pretty good time to have his best moguls run of the season.
Murphy scored an 80.95 to finish fourth in the qualifying round of the men’s moguls competition at the PyeongChang Olympics.
That means Murphy, who entered ranked 12th in the world, will go into Monday’s finals, which will begin at 7 a.m.
Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury, ranked first in the world, leads the qualifiers with a score of 86.07. Murphy is the only American moguls skier in the top 10.
Murphy, the seventh starter, had a fantastic, nearly-flawless qualifying run. His time was 25.40 seconds and he grabbed big air in his second jump, a back full. When he finished, he pumped his arms, knowing he had a good run. As he waited for the score, he gave the camera a thumbs up and said, “Hey everybody.”
He scored 14.51 points for his time, 14.74 for his air and 51.7 for his turns.
Murphy’s previous best score this year was an 80.57, when he finished third in Thaiwoo, China, in late December.
There were 30 skiers in the qualifying round, with the top 10 advancing to the first round of finals. The other 20 will compete in a second qualifying round, also Monday (at 5:30 a.m.), with the top 10 advancing to the finals.
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