Torin Yater-Wallace was the first favourite to stick a big score on run one, bagging an 89.6 which allowed him to then slip, slide and style his way down run two with qualification already in the bag.

His good friend and fellow US team mate Alex Ferreira followed him and went even better shortly after though. He was late with some grabs but stuck a big run for a score of 92.60 which held out until Blunck’s winner.

The Canadian’s were also on form, and possibly in parts underated, with Mike Riddle scoring 82.20 and Noah Bowman scoring a 77.20 – which Woodsy in BBC commentary said “he thought was better than Aaron Blunck’s run”.

David Wise also won the men’s halfpipe at the 2018 X Games, and when you add Aaron Blunck, the 21 year old who won the 2017 X Games halfpipe and the current world champion, it’s a hell of a formidable line up from the Americans. The fact that Team USA were able to take the three top spots in qualifying without David Wise filling any of them is testament to just how strong this team is.

The rest of the field challenged the idea at the qualifier that this event was just about North America though.

Byron Wells from New Zealand stuck an 88.6 which oozed style. It was a ski run for skiers and one that challenged the idea you have to spin for days to succeed in halfpipe.

Byron’s brother Beau-James Wells put down two great runs as well – first scoring 86.2 and then going on to bag an 88.2 with his second run – after telling Woodsy to shoutout the UK grime scene for him from the commentary box; a great way to win over any British viewer.

The French will have hope that their men can bother the favourites too. Kevin Rolland is famous for his style and experience in the sport. He’s got a bunch of medals to his name, and his first run of 87.80 was strong (and enough to give him a training run on the second), but he seemed to leave the pipe with an injury to his left hip after a shallow landing on one particular hit. It’ll be interesting to see if that is still bothering him come finals.

His French compatriot Thomas Krief is actually the only man from outside of North America to win a halfpipe stop on the FIS tour this year, and the wildcard pick will be looking to put a cat amongst the pigeons after scraping through qualifying with a score of 74.8.

Krief went big on his second run – possibly bigger than you should go in qualifying – and crashed out on his second run, so it was a nervous wait for him but he did indeed make it through.

The North Americans have been running rampant on the halfpipe so far though. Chloe Kim and Shaun White cleaned up for the American’s in the halfpipe snowboarding, and the results of the women’s ski halfpipe Olympic finals showed Canadian Cassie Sharpe at the top as well.

Could America showcase their dominance in the pipe even further in the halfpipe finals tomorrow? We’ll just have to wait and see.

—

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