It was yet another action-packed day in Laax for the qualification’s day for both Women and Men’s pipe and Men’s Slopestyle events. No wind, bluebird sky and of course a perfect pipe and slopestyle course, allowed the riders to show off their best runs in order to head to the next round. Up first was Women’s pipe qualifications and it was business as usual for Chloe Kim, that showed that she is yet again the rider to beat in 2022 and Kim was able to cruise her way to winning the qualies with a near flawless run, ending up with a score of 93.80. Hot on her heels was China’s Cai Xeutong, Ono Mitsuki in third and Laax regular Queralt Castellet in 4th

Men’s Pipe:
The men’s pipe saw not only Ayumu Hirano return to Laax but also Shaun White, who has not been seen in Laax since a now infamous event featuring Kevin Pearce. Shaun White stepped one place closer to heading to Beijing 2022 and the Laax 2022 finals by ending up 4th in his heat. Swiss hero; Jan Scherrer placed third in his heat, much to the delight of the assembled crowd. Yuto Totsuka came second and unsurprisingly, Ayumu Hirano came first of the heat with a score of 95.40. In heat 2, Scotty James, showed he is very much still on point by claiming the top spot with the best score of the day with 95.60, Raibu Katayama came second and Ruka Hirano came in third. Whilst we didn’t see any triples being thrown today, the level was insane and we are going to be given a visual treat on Saturday nights night final.

Mens Slope Qualifications:

I’m pretty sure I say this every year but I’ll say it again, the level of snowboarding today is insane. It was only qualifications today but switch back 12’s are now the safety tricks and back to back 16’s are not even surprising. Out of all of the events, the men slopestyle is possibly the hardest to predict who will win, it could be anyone’s for the taking. Today’s qualies saw Brock Crouch take the top spot in heat one and the top score of 95 points. New Zealand’s Tiarn Collins, took second with 4 points and Hiroaki Kunitake got the 3rd spot. Heat two, yet again saw an incredible standard and Takeru Otsuka took the lead with Stale Sandbech in second and Mons Roisland in 3rd.

Results:

Women’s Pipe Qualification:

1. Chloe Kim (USA) 93.80

2. Xuetong Cai (CHN) 86.20

3. Mitsuki Ono (JPN) 84.80

4. Queralt Castellet (ESP) 80.40

5. Shaotong Wu (CHN) 80.20

6. Haruna Matsumoto (JPN) 77.00

7. Jiayu Liu (CHN) 76.60

8. Sena Tomita (JPN) 74.00

9. Kurumi Imai (JPN) 70.60

10. Berenice Wicki (SUI) 65.60

11. Tessa Maud (USA) 59.60

12. Xinya Fu (CHN) 57.40

Men’s Pipe Qualification – Heat 1:

1. Ayumu Hirano (JPN) 95.40

2. Yuto Totsuka (JPN) 93.60

3. Jan Scherrer (SUI) 83.00

4. Shaun White (USA) 81.80

5. Valentino Guseli (AUS) 79.60

6. Lucas Foster (USA) 79.20

7. Ziyang Wang (CHN) 78.60

8. Ryan Wachendorfer (USA) 78.60

9. David Habluetzel (SUI) 70.60

10. Chaeun Lee (KOR) 70.00

11. Elias Allenspach (SUI) 67.80

12. Liam Gill (CAN) 67.20

Men’s Pipe Qualification – Heat 2:

1. Scotty James (AUS) 95.60

2. Raibu Katayama (JPN) 80.20

3. Ruka Hirano (JPN) 78.20

4. Pat Burgener (SUI) 77.00

5. Kaishu Hirano (JPN) 73.80

6. Joshua Bowman (USA) 71.80

7. Joey Okesson (USA) 71.20

8. Hongbo Gao (CHN) 62.00

9. Christoph Lechner (GER) 60.80

10. Ao Gu (CHN) 59.00

11. Jack Coyne (USA) 58.40

12. King Louis Philip Vito Vito (ITA) 58.00

Men’s Slopestyle Qualifications – Heat 1:

1. Brock Crouch (USA) 95.00

2. Tiarn Collins (NZL) 94.00

3. Hiroaki Kunitake (JPN) 91.80

4. Niklas Mattsson (SWE) 88.40

5. Leon Guetl (GER) 83.20

6. Fridtjof Tischendorf (NOR) 82.00

7. Niek van der Velden (NED) 78.60

8. Stian Kleivdal (NOR) 67.60

9. Clemens Millauer (AUT) 67.20

10. Ryoma Kimata (JPN) 66.80

11. Vlad Khadarin (RUS) 66.60

12. Marcus Kleveland (NOR) 62.00