After the women’s semis was the men’s turn to battle for spots for the finals. However, due to incoming fog the semis had to be cancelled before the last two riders, Charles Reid (CAN) and Chas Guldemond (USA), did get to drop into the pipe to perform their first run.

Current Swatch TTR Tour leader Jamie Anderson (USA) decided not to compete in the Halfpipe format in Japan to give her body a rest for the Parkstyle finals. Current World No. 4, Jordie Karlinsky (USA), is among one of the few female riders on the Tour that already has 7 results on her account. With her result in Alts Bandai, she can replace one of her current results and will move into World No. 2. The best woman of the day, Kelly Clark, currently sits in World No. 12 and will enter the Top 10 on Sunday if she continues her excellent performance from today. She impressed judges with a huge Frontside Air, a Backside Indy Mute Grab, Frontside 720, Indy Grab, Cab 360 Melon Grab, and a Frontside 540 Indy Grab.

Due to a rapid change of weather and heavy snowfalls, the icy pipe from the women’s semis quickly filled with snow and made riding for the men more difficult. Although the shaping crew did their best to save the day, the snowboarders had trouble getting speed and height in their runs. Before the cancellation, one of the most impressive riders of the event was the only 10-year old Japanese shredder Ayumu Hirano. Despite his young age his run consisted of style, 7s and 9s and easliy kept up with the rest of the field. Another Japanese that left the audience flabbergasted was Ryo Aono who was one of the few snowboarders today that seemed to have no trouble coping with the riding conditions. However, with only two riders left at the top of the Halfpipe after round one, the semis had to be postponed to Sunday as a thick waft of mist quickly covered the whole park at Alts Bandai.

With the Parkstyle finals tomorrow, and the Halfpipe semis and finals on Sunday tension will raise as riders will try to collect some of the last Swatch TTR Ranking points of the season in hope of locking down a spot in the end of season TTR Top 5. The finals will be broadcasted live on www.go211.com. More videos around the Asian Open are also available on www.ttrworldtour.com.

Qualified riders WOMEN

1 10 Clark Kelly USA BURTON 82.67 78.17 82.67

2 60 Matsumoto Haruna JPN SALOMON 80.50 60.67 80.50

3 19 Sun Zhifeng CHN BURTON 78.00 54.67 78.00

4 18 Liu Jiayu CHN BURTON 64.00 77.67 77.67

5 20 Teter Hannah USA BURTON 76.67 54.33 76.67

6 92 Okada Rana JPN BURTON 76.17 75.00 76.17

7 15 Chen Xu CHN BURTON 35.50 66.33 66.33

8 16 Tamura Yayoi JPN ELAN 65.17 38.67 65.17