Olympics: Japan's snowboard big air winner Murase reaches slopestyle final

Japanese snowboarder Kokomo Murase made a solid start in her bid for a second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday, qualifying second for the women's slopestyle final behind defending champion Zoi Sadowski Synnott.Murase, who beat Sadowski Synnott to the big air gold earlier in the games, was awarded 84.93 points for her opening run of slopestyle qualifying and finished 3.15 behind the New Zealander at Livigno Snow Park.The 21-year-old Murase will be joined in Tuesday's final by Japanese teammates Reira Iwabuchi, who qualified fourth with 73.65, and Mari Fukada, who was…READ FULL ARTICLE