Not content with showing up a lot of his Red Bull team mates at the recent Performance Camp, Jamie Nicholls has spanked most of the field to sail through to the Burton NZ Open slopestyle semi-finals in 2nd place.

Despite a clean run that culminated in a backside 1080 late cork over the 75-foot kicker, Jamie was pipped to the top spot by the narrowest of margins. His 89.33 score fell just short of Benjamin Farrow’s 89.67, as the yank stuck the likes of a frontside blunt 270-out and switch backside rodeo 5 on his second run. His countryman Sam Hulbert grabbed the last place on the podium, a couple of points off the pace.

While her fellow Kiwi James Hamilton only managed 13th place in the mens’ event,  Rebecca Torr cleaned up in the womens’ , throwing in a handplant on the last feature to add to the 5050 to front 1-out and backside 3 stalefish that she’d stomped higher up the course. Rana Okada of Japan beat off the fierce competition from the Americans to secure second place, while Danielle Adams had to settle for third. All in all, sixteen men and five women did enough to join the invited riders in Friday’s semi-finals. Before then, though, there’s the Half Pipe qualifiers tomorrow, so check back here for the report.