Laax, January 16, 2020. The LAAX OPEN 2020 continued today with the halfpipe semifinals. Once again, riders and spectators were greeted by blue skies and sunshine at Crap Sogn Gion. The 200-meter-long LAAX Superpipe was in perfect shape and looked spectacular. Queralt Castellet (SPA) and Scotty James (AUS) dominated their heats and will start as the top favorites in the night finals of Europe's most prestigious snowboard event in the halfpipe on Saturday.
In the women's semifinals, the highly touted US girls Maddie Mastro and Zoe Kalapos surprisingly failed to make it into the top 6. Instead, five riders from Asia qualified for the final for the first time: Xuetong Cai/CHN (2nd), Jiayu Liu/CHN (3rd), Haruna Matsumoto/JPN (4th), Ruki Tomita/JPN (5th), and Leng Qiu/CHN (6th). The highest score of the day went to Spain's Queralt Castellet, who is no stranger to Crap Sogn Gion. She already stood on the podium at the LAAX OPEN last year as runner-up. Castellet clearly dominated today's competition and is the only European to advance to this year's halfpipe final.
Defending champion Scotty James (AUS) lived up to his role as favorite in today's men's semifinals, scoring the highest points. The US snowboarding team performed strongly as usual and advanced to the final with five riders: Taylor Gold (3rd), Jason Wolle (5th), Ryan Wachendorfer (8th), Chase Blackwell (9th), and Toby Miller (11th). Swiss fans also have reason to celebrate, as four locals – Jan Scherrer (4th), Pat Burgener (6th), Olympic champion Iouri Podladtchikov (10th) and Dave Hablützel (12th) – will be competing in the impressive floodlit final on Saturday evening. Germany's Andre Höflich finished seventh with an outstanding second run.
In tomorrow's slopestyle final, numerous top riders promise spectacular snowboard action on the innovative course.
