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Posted: 2018-02-13 02:51:27

Updated February 13, 2018 14:33:08

Australia's Emily Arthur has finished 11th in the women's halfpipe final in her Olympic Winter Games debut, with fellow teenager and rising American star Chloe Kim claiming gold in Pyeongchang.

Arthur, competing 12 hours after Australian teammate Matt Graham won silver in the men's moguls event, began the halfpipe final in positive fashion with a first run earning a score of 48.25.

She was in ninth place ahead of the second run but it came unstuck for the 18-year-old when she fell on a landing to score 9.25 and slip down the standings.

Arthur, taking part in the event in which countrywoman Torah Bright won Olympic gold (2010) and silver (2014), crashed again on her third run to post a score of 25.00.

Wearing a swollen lip from her fall on her final run, Arthur said she was elated to with her Olympic debut.

"I really went for it in my last run and I definitely could have moved up a bit with that run," he told Channel Seven.

"But it's okay I'm still stoked with 11th. My first Olympics I got 11th, I'm really happy."

The 17-year-old Kim, meanwhile, put up a score of 93.75 on the first of her three finals runs and then bettered it with a near-perfect 98.75 on her last run with the gold already well in hand.

Liu Jiayu took silver with an 89.75 to become the first Chinese snowboarder to medal at the Olympics.

American Arielle Gold, who pondered retirement last summer, edged teammate and three-time Olympic medallist Kelly Clark for bronze.

Standing atop the hill at a calm and brilliant Phoenix Snow Park, Kim looked down at the crowd that included her parents, three sisters, three aunts, two cousins and her grandmother Moon Jung and proceeded to waste little time while turning the final into a global coming-out party.

She drilled her opening set, throwing in a 1080 - basically, three twists high above the pipe - before following it with a pair of flips. Kim celebrated at the end, pumping her fists and when her score flashed, she clasped her hands atop her head and drank in the moment.

Kim's teammates made serious bids to give the United States only its fourth-ever Olympic podium sweep.

Gold brushed off a fall during her first run and stomped an 85.75 on her third run. Clark, the 2002 Olympic champion still going strong at age 34, could not quite catch Gold with an 83.50.

Jiayu came the closest to providing Kim with a serious threat. She drilled an 89.75 during her first set to take the lead, only to watch Kim top it during her first run moments later.

She then washed out on her last trip down the longest Olympic halfpipe since the sport made its debut in 1998, turning Kim's last run into a victory lap.

ABC/AP

Topics: winter-olympics, winter-sports, sport, korea-republic-of

First posted February 13, 2018 13:51:27

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