Another beautiful day here in LAAX for today’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals in the legendary LAAX Superpipe. 24 men and 12 women were battling for a spot in Saturday’s big finals. Olympic Gold Medalist Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) won the Semi-Finals in his “home-pipe”, while Chloe Kim (USA) landed the best run in the women’s field.
All riders had two runs, with the best one counting. In the Men’s competition riders from Switzerland, the United States and China were clearly dominating the field today. Iouri Podladtchikov was leading the pack with his best run which earned him 90,75 points. He was starting off his run with a Method Indy, followed by a Frontside 9 Tail, a Backside 9 Mute, a Frontside Double Cork 10, a Cab Double Cork 10 and finishing with an Alley Oop 5. All qualified riders will give their very best on Saturday to snatch the Halfpipe crown!
The ladies field was in the hands of the US and Chinese riders. Queralt Castellet from Spain is the only European rider who made it into finals. Outstanding rider was Chloe Kim (USA) with a perfect 2nd run earning here unbelievable 98,25 points. Her run consisted of a Method, followed by a Frontside 1080 Tail, Cab 540 Melon, Switch Backside 540 Mute, ending with a Cab 720 Melon.