Beijing 2022: Brendan 'Bubba' Newby 20th in halfpipe qualifying

Ireland's Brendan 'Bubba' Newby finished 20th of 23 competitors in qualifying for the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe in snowy conditions at at the Winter Olympics.

Newby posted 10.75 for his first run, but that score was discarded when he recorded 47.00 with his second effort.

American Aaron Blunck led qualifiers, followed by New Zealand's Nico Porteous, who won bronze at Pyeongchang four years ago.

Blunck roared back from his uneven first run to score 92.00 and bolted to first place, while Porteous nabbed the second-highest score of 90.50 after soaring high above the halfpipe to make four and a half rotations in the air.

Veteran David Wise, who won gold in the halfpipe at both the Pyeongchang and Sochi Games, scored 89 in a confident return to the Olympics. The top 12 advanced to the final. Skiers soared over a giant halfpipe at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, where snow began to fall on the skiers as they got ready to drop into the halfpipe, with a number of skiers crashing and wiping out, including Newby in his first run. Finnish freestyle skier Jon Sallinen was half way through his opening run when he lost control on the left lip of the pipe, soaring over the edge and clipping the cameraman, sending him crashing to the snow. Blaming the weather, Sallinen said he had hurt his collarbone from the fall. "I was lucky not to land on my head, maybe I got a cushion from that cameraman," he said.