Olympics-Snowboarding-Britain's Morgan slides into slopestyle final

By Philip O'Connor ROSA KHUTOR, Russia, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Britain's Billy Morgan sailed into the Sochi Olympic final of the men's snowboard slopestyle event at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, scoring 90.75 on his first run of Saturday's semi-final to top the standings. Sage Kotsenburg of the United States claimed the second of four places up for grabs, coming in 0.25 of a point behind Morgan, as judges rewarded his two runs that were peppered with unorthodox grabs and tricks. The remaining two places went to Canada's Mark McMorris, who overcame a broken rib to finish third, and Yuki Kadono of Japan. The four will join the eight snowboarders who qualified for the final automatically on Thursday. The final takes place later on Saturday and the medals will be the first awarded at the 2014 Games, which officially opened on Friday. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)