Freestyle skiing-Australian Woods edges Kingsbury on tiebreak to win moguls gold

LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 12 : Australia's Cooper Woods won the moguls competition to secure the country's first gold medal at the Milano Cortina Games by edging Canada's Mikael Kingsbury on a tiebreak.

The 25-year-old Australian claimed victory by the finest of margins with a turns score of 48.4 to Kingsbury's 47.7, which was used as the tiebreaker after both scored a total of 83.71.

Woods had already signalled his form in his first run in the final, putting up an impressive 83.60 points to lead the pack.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. I'm speechless, super emotional, very proud," Woods told reporters.

"I didn't have any expectations this morning. I just wanted to go out and ski my runs and stay true to what I know I can achieve.

"It’s not often that you get one over Mikael so I’ll take it when I can. He is an absolutely wonderful man ... I always get advice from him."

The win offered some cheer for Australia after Jakara Anthony failed to retain her women's title on Wednesday.

Woods became the seventh Australian to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics and the second to claim the men's moguls title after Dale Begg-Smith in Turin 2006.

He comes from a strong winter sports background as his mother Katrina competed in aerials skiing and his uncle Peter "Toppa" Topalovic is a renowned moguls coach in New South Wales.

Kingsbury, widely regarded as one of the greatest moguls skiers of all time, added a fourth Olympic medal to his collection, repeating his silver from Beijing 2022.

The 33-year-old Canadian also won gold at PyeongChang 2018 after picking up silver at Sochi 2014. He now holds the record for most Olympic medals in men's freestyle skiing.

"I feel amazing. I’m very happy with my skiing," said Kingsbury, who recently extended his