Dufour-Lapointe, Kingsbury repeat as Val Saint-Côme champs
Justine leads Canadian sweep of women's podium
There was no stopping Canada's women's moguls skiers, especially on home soil.
Although Mikael Kingsbury repeated as men's champion on Saturday at the freestyle World Cup event in Val Saint-Come, Que., it was Justine Dufour-Lapointe and her Canadian teammates that stole the show, taking the top four spots in the competition.
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"It feels incredible to see the girls [do so well]," said Montreal's Dufour-Lapointe, who repeated as champion with 78.36 points. "They're skiing so well and that actually makes me ski better because we're pushing each other.
"When you see how fast we go and how high we go, you can't hold back, you have to give it your all every day."
Andi Naude (78.10) of Penticton, B.C., was second, followed by Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (77.70) who took bronze. Quebec City's Audrey Robichaud almost took third, finishing with 77.69 points. Alex-Anne Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., was 10th, Maxime Dufour-Lapointe was 16th.
'I wanted to ski for her'
Although it was as close to a home World Cup as it gets for the Dufour-Lapointe sisters, their parents were unable to travel north to watch them compete. Instead, their mother Johane Dufour had to stay home to rest after a bout of pneumonia and their father Yves Lapointe stayed to take care of her.
"I wanted to ski for her and make her proud, even though she wasn't here," said Dufour-Lapointe, who said it was a hard week. "I think it's what I've done today. I stayed focused and in my zone even though a lot of things were happening in my life. That's what makes us so great and good champions."
Naude was so pleased to not just win silver as part of the podium sweep, but to do it in front of Canadian fans.
"It was definitely such a cool feeling to stand on the podium with my teammates again today," said Naude. "Doing it on home soil is absolutely fantastic. It's so special to be up there at all and then to be up there on Canadian soil, with my teammates, that's just something else."
Kingsbury puts in another solid showing
Kingsbury, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., put in another solid showing, winning gold with 86.44 points. France's Sacha Theocharis (82.20) took silver and Sweden's Walter Wallberg (82.19) was third.
Already well above the competition in the overall World Cup moguls standings, Kingsbury put down a more conservative run. He felt it was necessary to play it safe with warmer conditions making the snow a little slower than he's used to.
"I wasn't pushing so much on the time today, I was just trying to jump well and be clean and get a medal," said Kingsbury. "That was my plan and it worked out so I'm very happy with that."
Kingsbury has 240 FIS points this season, ahead of Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Reiherd (182) and Australia's Matt Graham (146).
Philippe Marquis (69.55) was sixth, Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh (79.61) placed ninth and Laurent Dumais (70.16) came in 25th. All three are from Quebec City.
Marc-Antoine Gagnon (73.61) of Terrebonne, Que., was 18th, Simon Lemieux (67.34) of Repentigny, Que., was 32nd, Brenden Kelly (66.01) of Pemberton, B.C., was 37th, Gabriel Dufresne (64.43) of Repentigny was 40th, Kerrian Chunlaud (40.45) of Ste-Foy, Que., was 52nd.