Japanese pair Ikuma Horishima and Daichi Hara finished the men's moguls qualification round on Friday in fifth and sixth, respectively, booking their places in the final.

Horishima finished with 80.35 points, 5.72 behind top-qualifier Mikael Kingsbury, the Canadian who is the hot favorite for gold. Aleksandr Smyshliaev of the Olympic Athletes from Russia team slotted into second and Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Reikherd third.

"I was nervous and I was anxious, but I think I ended my performance with good momentum," said Horishima, the reigning world champion and Asian Winter Games title holder.

"I want to look at the video of my skiing and think of what I can do to improve. I will only concentrate on my skiing."

Hara overcame a severe bout of nerves to log one of his most impressive career results, finishing just 0.34 behind his highly rated countryman.

"I'm really glad. I passed the point of being nervous and I was about to throw up. I'm telling myself that I need to take gold now that I'll compete (in the final)," said Hara.

The women's qualifying round was won by France's Perrine Laffont with Andi Naude of Canada in second and American Morgan Schild in third. Japan's Arisa Murata scraped into the final with a 74.13-point score which was good enough for ninth.