Heather McPhie [ o ] Ådne Sinnes

VOSS, NOR, 5 MAR 2013 – After a brief delay due to heavy fog on course, moguls qualifiers at the 2013 Voss/Oslo FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships went off without another hitch from Myrkdalen resort just outside of Voss this morning.

Utilizing the Olympic qualification format, wherein an initial qualification run is held to separate the top 10 skiers from the field, followed by a second qualification run where skiers ranked from 11-30 after the first run are allowed to battle for the remaining eight spots in the final, most of the top-ranked moguls skiers in the world found themselves through to Wednesday's big show.

Predicatable, Hannah Kearney (USA) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) topped the respective ladies' and men's fields. Veteran Aiko Uemura (JPN) in 2^nd and early-season World Cup leader Heather McPhie (USA) in 3^rd rounded out the top 3 on the ladies' side, while for the men it was Olympic gold medal winner and two-time reigning dual moguls world champion Alex Bilodeau (CAN) in 2^nd followed by the flamboyant Per Spett (SWE) in 3^rd. 

Hannah Kearney claimed a World Championship win in 2005, but has been shut out at the event since then. Mikael Kingsbury, 20 years old, has already clinched the moguls World Cup overall win, but will be looking to add his first World Championship title to his already staggering resume.

The two-qualification run format lead to some interesting results, as Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN) – one of the breakout stars of 2012-13 who currently trails the powerhouse Kearney by only 3 World Cup points – would have found herself on the outside of finals looking in based on her first round score. The young Canadian was able to capitalize on her second chance, however, winning the second qualification run and putting herself into the best possible position for tomorrow's finals.

The local Norwegian squad had a bit of a tough day, failing to put any woman through to Wednesday's final. However, on the men's side, 22 year old Vinjar Slatten skied well enough to make his way into the World Championship finals nearly a month to the day after scoring his first World Cup podium.

Finals from the Voss/Oslo FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships moguls competition get underway from Myrkdalen at 14:00 CET.

Qualification results, final start lists, and live timing for tomorrow moguls World Championship finals can be found here: http://live-scoring.at/fis3/wscmo#tabs=3

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