Ski and snowboard big air, slopestyle and halfpipe world titles are due to be decided in Aspen in the United States after competition was relocated from Zhangjiakou in China because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Today saw the first qualification events in the men’s and women’s freeski halfpipe and slopestyle categories.

In the freeski halfpipe competition, it was a good day for Canada with Rachael Karker topping women’s qualifying with a score of 94.25.

Second place went to Britain’s Zoe Atkin with 87.75, with third going to Valeriya Demidova of the Russian Skiing Federation with 85.50.

The top five were rounded off by two Americans - with Brita Sigourney in fourth after scoring 84.00 and Hanna Faulhaber in fifth after scoring 81.25.

Men’s qualification was topped by Brendan Mackay with 94.25, with Birk Irving of the United States second with 92.50.

Third place went to fellow Canadian Noah Bowman with 90.00, with Nico Porteous of New Zealand fourth with 88.75.

Defending men’s halfpipe champion Aaron Blunck could only qualify fifth with 87.75 points.

In the slopestyle discipline, women’s qualifying was topped by Zoi Sadowski-Synnott with 94.50.

Back-to-back Olympic champion Jamie Anderson of the United States qualified second with 90.75, with Tess Coady of Australia third with 89.75.

The top five was completed by Enni Rukajarvi of Finland in fourth with 89.50 and Anna Gasser of Austria fifth with 89.25.

Men’s qualifying featured two heats with heat one headed by Leon Vockensperger of Germany with 92.25.

Second place went to Lyon Farrell of the United States with 88.50, with third going to Hiroaki Kunitake of Japan with 85.00.

In heat two, Marcus Kleveland of Norway topped the standings with a score of 86.50.

Second place went to Rene Rinnekangas of Finland with 86.00 ahead of Dusty Henricksen of the United States in third with 83.50.

More qualifying events are scheduled to take place tomorrow in the men’s and women’s halfpipe and men’s and women’s freeski slopestyle categories.