Despite narrowly missing out on her second TTR crown, Kelly Clark was doing what she does best yesterday. In appalling conditions Kelly edged out fellow Olympic gold medallist Hannah Teter to qualify in 1st place for the Burton U.S. Open halfpipe final. No 1080s from Kelly this time, but her run of frontside air, back 5, front 5, backside air and front 7 was enough to fend off the competition.

After underperforming in his 1st run, Kazu Kokubo threw front 10, cab 9, front 9, back 5 and frontside stiffy to collect a 96.67. This wasn’t quite enough to beat Iouri Podladtchikov though, who improved on his 93.33 first attempt with a clean run of backside air, front 10, switch mctwist 7, front 5 and back 9 to take the top score of 98.00.

It was hard lines for 12-year-old Ayumu Hirano: despite a run that any full-grown adult would be proud of (backside air, front 7, cab 7, front 9, switch back 3) his score of 82.67 just missed out on a place in tomorrow’s final. He will no doubt take some consolation in the fact that his brother Eiju Hirano made the cut.

Highlights are available over at Metacafe, which will also be streaming the slopestyle finals later today. The mens final starts at a convenient 6pm UK time, so no watching Hollyoaks because “there’s nothing else on”….