China's Cai, Liu, Qiu enter women's snowboard halfpipe final at Beijing 2022

CHONGLI, Zhangjiakou, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's seven-time World Cup halfpipe crystal globe winner Cai Xuetong, Liu Jiayu and Qiu Leng qualified for the women's snowboard halfpipe final at Beijing 2022 here on Wednesday.

Cai and Liu are both veterans who participated in their fourth Winter Olympics. Cai notched a high score of 83.25 points in the first run to rank the third in the table. Winning a ticket for the final, she tried a bolder last trick in the second run but failed.

"My major goal today is to advance to the final. I planned to well perform a backside in the second run but I did not make it. I will try more difficult tricks tomorrow, otherwise, my four years' efforts will be useless," said Cai.

Unlike her compatriot, Liu slipped in the first run, only completing half of her tricks. In the second run, she managed to raise her ranking to the seventh with 72.25 points.

"I was pretty happy with it because in my first run I fell and I felt a lot of pressure in my second one," said Liu. "In the beginning I was focusing on just making it into the finals and that's my first step. And then I did it with my second run and I was so proud of myself."

Qiu was lucky enough to lock the last spot in qualification with 66.25 points, edging out American Maddie Mastro by 0.5 points. Defending champion Chloe Kim topped in the qualifiers with 87.75 points in her first run.

"Kim is truly a talented athlete and I have been challenging her all the time. I have always appreciated her competitiveness and her promotion of snowboarding. She has been leveling up the difficulty of tricks, which encourages us to make breakthroughs," said Cai.

On the men's side, Japanese snowboarders dominated the qualification with four players admitted to the final, while China's Gu Ao, Fan Xiaobing, Wang Ziyang and Gao Hongbo ended their Olympic journey.

"I have been practicing snowboarding for 10 years. I am very excited to compete in my motherland. Compared with world top athletes, my tricks lack difficulty and altitude. I will continue to improve myself," said Fan.