Marcus Kleveland got the best men's score in big air qualifying ©Getty Images

Chinese teenager Su Yiming could be coming to the boil at the perfect time after topping his qualification heat at the Snowboard World Cup big air competition in Steamboat. 

The 17-year-old scored 93.00 points to book a place in the final, and was outscored only by Marcus Kleveland.

The Norwegian - the reigning slopestyle world champion - earned 94.75 points on his first run to comfortably win heat two.

Su's impressive showing will doubtless have raised hopes in China - host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games - that he could win a medal on home snow in February.

Only 10 men qualified for Saturday's (December 4) final, and Olympic champion Sébastien Toutant was among those to miss out at the Colorado resort.

Olympic champion Anna Gasser reached the women's final ©Getty Images
Olympic champion Anna Gasser reached the women's final ©Getty Images

The Canadian could only score 64.50, while Kyle Mack of the United States - the Pyeongchang 2018 runner-up - fared even worse and was unable to post a clean run.

World champion Mark McMorris, also form Canada, did make the final.

Reira Iwabuchi of Japan topped women's qualifying with a whopping score of 98.25.

Anna Gasser from Austria, the Olympic champion, was narrowly behind with 97.00.