By Joo Kyung-don
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korean freestyle moguls skier Seo Jung-hwa finished her Olympic personal-best 14th at the PyeongChang Winter Games on Sunday.
At Phoenix Snow Park in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul, Seo scored 72.31 points in the first final round to finish 14th in women's moguls at the 23rd Winter Olympic Games.
Seo's score wasn't enough for her to advance to the second final round, where only the top 12 contestants compete. However, it was the best result by a South Korean in the Olympic women's moguls competition.
Seo finished 21st in her Winter Olympics debut in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010. The 27-year-old settled for 24th at the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia.
At the PyeongChang Olympics, 30 skiers compete in the women's moguls and the finals -- comprised of three rounds -- are only open to the top 20 contestants. The top 10 performers from the first qualification round advanced directly to the finals, while the rest had to go through another qualification run to earn one of the 10 remaining spots. The best score of either qualification round was used to determine the remaining 20 skiers' qualification result.
Seo previously failed to grab the direct pass to the finals after she lost her balance and fell on the snow, which put her in last place with a score of 16.57. In the second qualification round, she made a minor mistake on her skiing, but executed her jump cleanly to make the finals with a score of 71.58.
She had a better run in the first final round with better scores on jumps, but fell 0.92 point short of making the top 12.
Seo's younger cousin, Seo Jee-won, meanwhile, failed to reach the finals after she ended up 24th after two qualifying runs. It was a disappointing second qualifying run for Jee-won in her second Olympics, as she scored only 64.61, 3.85 points lower than her first run. She was 19th in the first qualifying round on Friday.
The PyeongChang Games don't have dual moguls competition, meaning both skiers' Olympic campaigns are now over.
On Monday, three South Koreans -- Choi Jae-woo, Seo Myung-joon, and Kim Ji-hyon -- will try to make it to the men's moguls finals.
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