SNOWBOARD: Two out of the four men’s qualification heats for the FIS Snowboard World Cup Slopestyle took place after an initial weather delay that also forced the postponement of women’s qualification. The two women’s heats and two remaining men’s heats will now take place tomorrow (Monday) with the top qualifiers going straight into the finals.

Cardrona’s challenging six-feature course starts with a wall ride that allowed riders to express their creativity from the outset. This led into a set of rails followed by a choice of pole jam or rainbow rail, and then into a set of three jumps ranging in size from 50ft to 62ft.

Unfortunately Australian trio Tim Laidlaw, Declan Vogel-Paul and Nicholas Wood all failed to qualify for the finals.

After one of the favourites for the gold Shaun White crashed out in training, his compatriot, Eric Willett won the first heat, scoring big with 88.66. His run featured a cab 3 stall into cab 270 frontside boardslide, lipslide 450 out, switch back 900 melon, frontside 1080 double cork mute and ending with a backside 1080 double cork mute.

Gjermund Braaten of Norway took out heat two with an even higher score of 91.00. His awesome run started with a frontside 360 stall into blunt 270 out, boardslide to fakie, cab 900 melon, frontside 1080 double cork mute and backside 1080 double cork mute.

The other qualifying riders were Maxence Parrot (CAN), Roope Tonteri (FIN) and Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) from heat one, plus Clemens Schattschneider (AUT), Ulrik Badertscher (NOR) and Billy Morgan (GBR).

Snowboard slopestyle makes its Winter Olympic debut at Sochi 2014 so Winter Games NZ is an important opportunity for elite riders to gain valuable qualification points in the first FIS World Cup event of the season.