Olympics hopeful second in moguls

AUSTRALIAN moguls skier Matt Graham has enjoyed his first podium of the season, finishing second in a World Cup event in China.

The Winter Olympics medal fancy had a forgettable start to the northern hemisphere circuit with a 46th placing but bounced back with style at the Thaiwoo resort.

With a final score of 82.75, he finished in touching distance of the sport’s all-time great, Mikael Kingsbury of Canada (83.61), and in front of American Troy Murphy in third (80.57).

Graham improved as the day went on, only sneaking into the 16-man first final in 14th.

He then qualified for the six-man super final in second behind American Emerson Smith, maintaining the spot but upping his score in the decider. James Matheson was seventh, Rohan ChapmanDavies 13th and Cooper Woods-Topalovic 29th.

It was a decidedly rougher event for one of Australia’s best hopes in Pyeongchang, Britt Cox, who had a rare down day in finishing 25th. Cox is considered Australia’s best chance of gold at the Games, having won the World Cup title and world championship in a dominant 2016/17. She’d also won the first event of this season in Ruka, Finland.

Geelong’s Jakara Anthony was the best-placed Australian in 14th in an event won by American Jaelin Kauf (77.90). Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan was second (77.79), while Canadian Andi Naude was third (77.64).