High winds raged at the Swatch TTR 5Star Crans-Montana Champs Open presented by Rip Curl today, however, the sheltered Halfpipe and stoked riders ensured the action was still intense. 46 snowboarders were battling to qualify for the Slopestyle semi finals tomorrow. After a hotly contested day, 11 riders have made the grade to go head to head in the finals against invited riders such as Risto Mattila (FIN), Andy Finch (USA) and Gian Simmen (SUI).

Frenchman, Julien Bogoli, qualified in first place, soaring above the rest of the competition with a run consisting of an FS Air, FS Alley oop, FS 5 to BS 5. He was happy with his efforts and still made the best of the course in spite of the difficult weather. ' Yesterday the pipe was already pretty good and today it was really great. It's a shame that there was too much wind for the kickers, however, I am really stoked about today' s riding' . Qualifying in second was Janne Lipsanen (FIN) and in third Patrick Burgener (SUI).

Tomorrow the action will amp up a level when the invited riders come out to go after the 850 ranking points on offer. Mattila will be going all out in hope of moving up to Swatch TTR World No.3 whilst Arthur Longo (FRA), Ville Uotila (FIN) and Jaakko Ruha (FIN) are all vying to improve their standing in the TTR Top 25.

Stay tuned to www.ttrworldtour.com, for all new rankings, updated videos and news of the 5Star Crans-Montana Champs Open presented by Rip Curl and all the other contests going down globally. Log onto www.freecaster.tv, mpora.tv and method.tv for the live webcast of the event tomorrow.

The Top 11 Qualified Riders

1 Bogoli, Julien FRA
2 Lipsanen, Janne FIN
3 Burgener, Patrick SUI
4 Daviet, Victor FRA
5 Lundmark, Micael SWE
6 Ducourtil, Val rian FRA
7 Marechal, Ugo FRA
8 Reynders, Christophe BEL
9 Imhof, Pascal SUI
10 Carlson, Jonas SWE
11 Henzelin, Damien SUI