A hugely successful showcase of world’s best mogul skiing went down at “Dosso” course in Chiesa in Valmalenco (ITA) on Saturday, as Jakara Anthony (AUS) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) reached for top spots in a hugely entertaining dual moguls competition that acted as the penultimate stop of the 2021/22 FIS Freestyle Ski Moguls World Cup season.
Coming into Valmelenco’s event on top of the dual moguls ranking, Anthony didn’t disappoint as the 2022 Olympic champion from Beijing confidently climbed her way through to finally reach for her third World Cup victory of the season, which brought her just one step closer to claiming the historic first dual moguls title once the season wrap up in Megeve (FRA) next weekend.
While it was a crash-filled day of competition as the world’s best moguls skiers pushed their limits on a tough course in Valmalenco, Anthony remained calm, cool and in control throughout the day, keeping her turns tidy, her speed up and her tricks clean as others struggled.
In the big final Anthony was matched up against the reining World Cup champion Perrine Laffont, who also showed some impressive skiing on the day including a very exciting semi final matchup against Jaelin Kauf. But in the big final Laffont couldn’t quite stick her run and after she hit the brakes hard in the bottom part of the middle section, it was pretty clear that she wouldn’t challenge Anthony for the top spot on Saturday.
By winning the event in Valmalenco, Anthony not only increased her advantage over Laffont in dual moguls standing to over 60 points with one competition reaming in 2021/22, but now she’s also almost 60 ahead of her French rival in the overall moguls standing. With her impressive record of nine podiums in 10 competitions this season, it’s very unlikely that we will see Anthony without at least two crystal globes on top of the podium in Megeve.
With Anthony in first and Laffont in second, it was Jaeling Kauf who rounded out the podium in third place after coming victorious against Kai Owens in all-American small final matchup.
Moving over to the men’s event Mikael Kingsbury claimed his seventh World Cup victory of the season and his third straight win in dual moguls. After surprisingly failing to defend his Olympic gold medal just a couple of weeks ago in Beijing, Kingsbury was back to his winning ways on Saturday and leaving no doubt who was the strongest rider on the day.
After edging out Marco Tade (SUI), Jimi Salonen (FIN) and Ludvig Fjallstrom (SWE), Kingsbury was finally matched against his biggest rival for the title this season Ikuma Horishima (JPN).
Once in the big final Kingsbury deliver yet another solid run, while Horishima crashed hard right after top air, leaving the Canadian skier with another victory and another 100 points into World Cup ranking.
With now only one moguls and one dual moguls competitions left in 2021/22, it looks like Kingsbury might wrap up the season with a moguls hat-trick, meaning that he would claim all three titles available this season. And while his dual moguls as well as overall moguls crystal globe will be hard to deny by Horishima, the Japanese rider sits only 12 points below Kingsbury in the moguls ranking, leaving things wide open up until the final moguls event next Saturday.
With Kingsbury and Horishima going 1-2 in Valmalenco, Walter Wallberg (SWE) finished the day in third place after edging out his teammate Ludvig Fjallstrom in men’s small final.
The FIS Freestyle Ski Moguls World Cup is now travelling to Megeve for the final event of the season scheduled to go down next Friday and Saturday, March 18-19.
QUICK LINKS
