The Austrian scored 92.75 on run two to overtake Canada's Laurie Blouin and lead the eight athletes who qualified for the final on Tuesday (March 16) in Colorado.

American Jamie Anderson - big air silver medallist at Pyeongchang 2018 - sneaked through to the final in eighth place.

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, the bronze medallist at the last Winter Olympics, scored 90.75 to qualify in third place.

Japanese trio Reira Iwabuchi, Kokomo Murase and Miyabi Onitsuka are also through, along with Tess Coady of Australia.

Big air contests were not held at the 2019 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships because of poor weather conditions.

That means Norway's Ståle Sandbech - victorious in 2017 - is still the world champion, and along with compatriot Marcus Kleveland he advanced to the final.

Kleveland has already won slopestyle gold in Aspen this year.

The duo were among 12 snowboarders to qualify for the men's final, with Canada's Mark McMorris leading the way by scoring 92.75.

Compatriot Max Parrot and Finland's Rene Rinnekangas, the slopestyle bronze medallist, also broke the 90-point barrier.

Canada's Olympic champion Sébastien Toutant and American Chris Corning - a world silver medallist in big air four years ago - failed to advance to the final.