China's Gu, Zhang and Li enter women's freeski halfpipe final at Beijing 2022

CHONGLI, Zhangjiakou - China's free skier Gu Ailing, Zhang Kexin and Li Fanghui qualified for the women's halfpipe final at Beijing 2022 here on Thursday, while Chinese Wu Meng failed to qualify for Friday's finals.

Gu led all the way in both runs and topped 12 qualifiers with 95.50 points. She was also the gold medallist in big air and the silver medallist in slopestyle at Beijing 2022.

"It felt pretty good to land my first run. I felt good just out here having fun, doing my best and happy to step it up," Gu said.

As Gu's grandmother came to watch her skiing, she said: "She's never even watched me skiing but I'm honored to have her here to be able to show her my sports. I think once she holds my big gold medal, she'll be pretty happy. We'll see."

The 19-year-old Zhang ranked the fifth with 86.50 points. She made her World Championships halfpipe debut in 2019, and had won halfpipe World Cup event twice here.

Making mistake in the second run, Li ranked the seventh with 84.75 points. The 18-year-old won the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games silver medal just behind her teammate Gu.

Chinese 19-year-old Wu slipped in the first run. She made her ranking to the 16th with 67.75 points and failed to qualify for the finals.

Rachael Karker of Canada, who topped the world rank in 2020-21 season in the overall halfpipe standings, ranked the second with 89.50 points.

Estonia's Kelly Sildaru, who had just won the bronze in slopestyle at the Games, did not start in the second run, ranked the third with 87.50 points.