Ayumu Hirano showed he has no Tokyo Olympic hangover as he led the way in men's snowboard halfpipe qualifying at the Beijing Games on Wednesday.
On his Olympic return after a foray into skateboarding, the two-time reigning Winter Games halfpipe silver medalist put the rest of the competition on notice with two high-octane runs at Genting Snow Park, the first scoring 87.25 points and the second putting him on top with 93.25.
Australia's Scotty James, who has dominated the event in recent years, finished second with 91.25 followed by Japan's Ruka Hirano on 87.00.
"I nailed my first run so I attacked (the second) the best I could, hoping to put myself as high as possible," said Ayumu, who opened with a frontside double-cork 1440 into a massive cab double-cork 1440.
When asked whether there is a triple-cork on the cards for the final, Ayumu said, "I assume everyone will be doing it, so I want to take my degree of perfection to an extreme level."
Ruka's third place came despite his largest-amplitude tricks being two 1200s, giving him room to go larger in the final.
After finishing his 2018 Games on a stretcher following a huge halfpipe crash, Yuto Totsuka had a better time in China, scoring 84.50 in his first run to go into the final with the sixth-best score. He did fall heavily on his backside in his second run, however, and complained of it being quite sore.
"I have a run I want to do in the final, so hopefully I can win it with a successful triple (cork)," said Totsuka, the rider many tipped to have the best chance at topping James.
"I was frustrated not managing to ride all the way in Pyeongchang so I'll aim to do that first, and I'll be happy if I can win it."
Ayumu's little brother Kaishu Hirano put in two solid runs to claim ninth and a spot in the final.
Megastar American three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White got through in fourth with a run awarded 86.25, but he was made to sweat after falling on his first pass.
The gold will be decided when the men return to the pipe on Friday for the final.
Japan's women set the tone earlier in the day when three worked their way into the top six qualifiers.
Mitsuki Ono led the way behind only American Chloe Kim, the Japanese scoring 83.75 points in her second run which was four points short of Kim's qualifying-topping opening run.
Ono started her run with a frontside 900 and added in back-to-back 720s to better her first effort which garnered 79.50 from the judges.
"My second run was cleaner and the increase in points reflects that," Ono said. "I did better than I did in practice. I want to get good height and that is what I want people to see."
Japanese sisters Sena and Ruki Tomita kept it close on the rankings, slotting into fifth and sixth, with only 1.5 points separating them on their first runs. Both join Ono in the final which will be contested on Thursday.
The other Japanese to take part, Kurumi Imai, failed to qualify to the final, with her best run of 54.75 only enough to put her into 15th place.
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