Japanese riders own Big Air in Copper Mountain

Following a strong performance in yesterday's halfpipe qualifiers where Japanese riders were able to keep up with Team USA, athletes from the Land of the Rising Sun stepped up their game in today's qualifiers for the season's penultimate Big Air World Cup, the sole on-snow event of its kind and also the last prior to the discipline's Olympic debut next February.

Yuka Fujimori who had just missed out the podium in Moenchengladbach, Germany last weekend as well as Reira Iwabuchi set the pace in the women's qualifiers earning the top spots of their respective heats.

Fujimori, a former SBX racer with two Olympic participations (2006 and 2014) under her belt, underlined her successful switch to slopestyle and big air with a stunning backside 900 mute which was awarded with a 92.00.

Her teammate Iwabuchi landed a big cab 900 melon scoring a 90.00 in a qualifier session which saw the girls killing it.

Riders like Sina Candrian (SUI; 87.66), who stomped a frontside 1080 but missed out a longer grab or Silje Norendal (NOR; 78.66) who also threw down a cab 900 melon moved on to the finals of the best eight ladies, too.

Julia Marino (USA; 89.33) landing a switch double underflip 900 as well as Cheryl Maas (NED; 89.00) with a backside 900 tail also made it from heat 2 to the final show which will also feature Sarka Panochova (CZE; 76.33) and 2014 Olympic Slopestyle Champion Jamie Anderson (USA; 83.66) who sneaked in the finals as respective fourth of their qualifier heats.

Just a couple of hours later in the men's qualifiers, World Cup leader Yuri Okubo tied on to the good results of his female teammates impressing the judges with a backside 1620 mute to walk away with the highest score of the day – a 94.66.

The runner-up of last weekend's ARAG Big Air Festival therefore led Chris Corning (USA; 92.33), Peetu Piiroinen (FIN; 90.00), Judd Henkes (USA; 89.00) and 2015 Slopestyle World Champion Ryan Stassel (USA, 88.66) as top-5 of heat 1 to Sunday's finals.

Heat 2 was dominated by top favourite Max Parrot (CAN; 90.00) who nailed a backside triple cork 1440 melon to move on to the finals together with Mons Roisland (NOR; 86.66), Jonas Boesiger (SUI; 85.66), Rene Rinnekangas (FIN; 83.33) and Chandler Hunt (USA; 81.00).

The finals are slated to take place on Sunday 11 AM LOC (7 PM CET). Check this link for LIVE TV info.

Live scoring will be also available for both, women and men.