Kingsbury continues to dominate World Cup circuit
The dominance of Mikaël Kingsbury in the moguls World Cup circuit continued on Saturday and incredibly for the first time, it extended to his home province.
It was the fifth consecutive moguls World Cup gold for Kingsbury, 22, the latest at Val Saint-Côme located north of Montreal. Somehow a men’s single moguls World Cup win in Québec had eluded the Olympic silver medallist from Sochi 2014.
Kingsbury has won five of six moguls World Cups this season. His teammate Phil Marquis won the other. Joining Kingsbury on the men’s podium were Matt Graham of Australia and Russia’s Alexandr Smyshlyaev in second and third respectively.
Mikaël Kingsbury flies down the moguls hill in Val Saint-Côme (Julien Heon / Canadian Freestyle Ski Association).
“I needed to avoid mistakes (in the final). I didn’t have to be the fastest, I just need to have two clean jump and not make any mistakes,” Kingsbury said. “I made small errors in my previous runs and I didn’t want to give the judges any excuse to remove points.”
On the women’s side two Canadians landed on the podium with Chloé Dufour-Lapointe winning silver and Audrey Robichaud grabbing a bronze medal. American Hannah Kearney won the women’s event.
Dufour-Lapointe said, “It feels good to be back on the podium,” as she missed out of the top three on the previous two World Cup outings. “The course was really technical, I put all my technique into it. I tried to be consistent and that’s what I did.”
Robichaud was ecstatic with her first World Cup medal of the season. The veteran competed in her 99th career World Cup event according to a release from Canadian Freestyle Ski Association.“I am just so proud. I am overjoyed right now and at a loss for words. It’s really difficult to describe how I feel,” Robichaud said citing her results in training. “I’ve felt like I was really close to making it to the podium for a while,” She was glad that her hard work translated into a World Cup medal in Québec before family and friends.
In an unlikely turn, Olympic champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe missed out on the final run and finished 14th. She had come to Québec with the momentum of two consecutive World Cup wins and a World Championship title. With three World Cup races left, the youngest of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters feels she is “fully focused” on the challenge.
