International snowboarders dominated the field of 10 male riders who qualified yesterday for the next round of the New Zealand Burton Open slopestyle competition at the Cardrona Alpine Resort.
The 10 qualifiers were selected as the best from a line-up of 70 registered male riders, who managed to complete their scheduled two runs down Cardrona's slopestyle course.
Low cloud and fog rolled in halfway through the women's qualification runs, hampering visibility on the mountain, to force organisers to postpone the session until tomorrow.
The 10 male qualifiers, led by Atsushi Ishikawa, of Japan, and Russian rider Sergey Tarasov, will progress to the semifinals of the slopestyle tomorrow morning.
The 35-strong women's field will complete a final run down the slopestyle course tomorrow before the semifinals for the competition take place.
The male and female qualifiers will join a group of invited riders and carry-over finalists from last year's Burton Open in the semifinals, with the 16 best-performed men progressing to the finals, while the eight top women will also go through.
New Zealand snowboarders who have already qualified for the slopestyle semifinals include Queenstown riders Shelly Gotlieb and Nick Hyne.
Wanaka snowboarders Abby Lockhart and Steffie Luxton will be trying to increase the New Zealand representation by qualifying tomorrow morning for the women's slopestyle semifinals.
Slopestyle qualifiers (men): Atsushi Ishikawa (Japan) 1, Sergey Tarasov (Russia) 2, Christian Haller (Switzerland) 3, Tore Holvik (Norway) 4, Arthur Longo (France) 5, Sage Kotsenburg (US) 6, Eric Beauchemin (US) 7, Gjermund Braaten (Norway) 8, Johann Baisamy (France) 9, Jye Kearney (Australia) 10.
