New Zealand freeskier Ben Barclay has put down two brilliant runs to qualify for the men's slopestyle final at the Beijing Winter Olympics, despite battling a knee injury.
The 20-year-old from Auckland skied superbly, matching his more experienced counterparts for skill and range of tricks on his Olympic slopestyle debut.
His first run began with a big transfer from the top rail to the down rail with a 270 out, before pulling out a huge switch 450 onto the second rail and landing cleanly.
Three double corks followed on the three jumps. The first was a 1440 tail grab, the second a 1260 safety grab and the third a monstrous switch 1620 mute grab.
The run earnt him a score of 76 and put him into seventh place after the first of two runs.
He backed it up in the second, performing the same tricks to an even higher standard, scoring 77.71 and seeing him qualify for Wednesday's final in seventh place.
He said afterwards he was "very stoked" with his performance and wasn't feeling the pressure too much.
"It doesn’t feel like a stereotypical Olympic Games, it just feels like a bunch of mates skiing," he told Sky.
While he didn't give much away, his family watching on from the New Zealand fanzone in Wānaka were ecstatic.
"We're so over the moon, we really, truly can't believe it," Barclay's mother Kirsty said, while his father Warren said they'd never seen him ski like that before.
"We're incredibly proud," he told Sky.
Kirsty also revealed Barclay had been battling a serious knee injury suffered in training just days earlier.
"He went too high and he damaged his knee hugely. He went to hospital and got an MRI and it's clear, but he's in a lot of pain and he's dosed up on Panadol and ibuprofen."
Meanwhile, fellow freeskier Finn Bilous wasn't quite able to nail either of his runs, finishing in 15th place with a score of 68.01.
Swiss skier Andri Ragettli was the top qualifier with a score of 85.08.
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