Marion Thenault of Canada warms up prior to competing in the freestyle skiing women’s aerials final 1 during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, in Zhangjiakou, China, Monday, Feb. 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickTHE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Marion Thénault wins aerials World Cup gold

Marion Thénault soars to the gold medal at the FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup in Le Relais, Quebec on Saturday.

The Olympic bronze medallist dominated the competition from start to finish in the final. Posting the first best jump score of 90.24, she easily qualified for the grand final, which included six jumpers.

On her second jump, the 22-year-old posted the highest-scoring jump of the day and set a new personal best score of 96.23 at a World Cup. The silver medal went to American Ashley Caldwell (92.00) and Ukrainian Olga Polyuk (71.34) rounded out the podium with bronze.

READ: Marion Thénault soars to silver, Lewis Irving claims bronze

In the over FIS aerials classification, Thénault is first with 180 points. She started the season strong with a silver medal in Ruka, Finland.

Rosalie Gagnon finished 11th in the small final.

On the men’s side, Lewis Irving posted 80 points to finish in fifth place. After dominating the qualifications, Irving narrowly qualified for the big final with the sixth best score on his first final jump. On his last jump, Irving crashed hard on landing, preventing him from reaching the podium. Victor Primeau, Alexandre Duchaine and Émile Nadeau finished ninth, 10th and 11th, respectively.

Miha Fontaine was unable to reach the final rounds with a 15th place result.

The event was won by American Quinn Dehlinger with a score of 122.62.