Canadians cap wildly successful World Champs with four medals in dual moguls

It’s been a good week to be a Canadian freestyle skier.

Not far from home, Canadian moguls skiers tonight (Feb. 5) closed the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Championships in Deer Valley, Utah the same way they opened them on Wednesday night – with four skiers on the podium, in dual moguls this time.

Canadian Jennifer Heil, who has announced she will retire at season’s end, grabbed her second gold medal of these championships and third career dual moguls World title tonight under the Deer Valley lights in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

“It feels amazing, I love this course. It’s one of the most famous courses in the world, it’s just a privilege to be in front of this amazing crowd and to ski on such a great course,” said Heil who also won the single moguls event on Wednesday. “What can I say? I couldn’t ask for more.”

The women’s final and small finals both came down to teammate battles as Chloe Duford-Lapointe succumbed to Heil to  earned the silver medal and American Olympic champion Hannah Kearney beat Heather McPhie for the bronze medal.

“Today my goal was to ski my own runs and I did ski five solid competition runs. I should be pleased, but in fact I’m incredibly disappointed,” Kearney said, who earned the single moguls silver medal earlier in the week. “I wasn’t trying to achieve a bronze medal.”

Canadians Audrey Robichaud and Kristi Richards (single moguls bronze medalist) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

A pair of Canadians also topped the men’s podium as Wednesday’s single moguls silver medalist and Olympic champion Alexandre Bilodeau stepped up his second career duals World title. He outlasted 18-year-old teammate Mikael Kingsbury in the all-Canadian final. Kingsbury took the bronze medal in the singles competition.

“It feels great to win here,” said Bilodeau. “It’s super hard to defend your title when you have young guys like (Kingsbury) coming up. I’m working harder and harder to stay there, but the young guys like Mikael are pushing harder and harder too.”

Japan’s Nishi Nobuyuki bested singles champion Guilbaut Colas of France in the small final to secure the bronze medal.

Patrick Deneen, 2009 single moguls World Champion, led the American men in fifth place ahead of Jeremy Cota in ninth, Joe Doscoe in 13th and Sho Kashima in 18th.

Canada led all countries at these championships with 16 medals including eight gold. The U.S. followed with seven medals an one gold (Alex Schlopy, halfpipe).

NBC will air the World Championships dual moguls competition on Sunday, Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. MT.

Women’s Results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Result	Level	Points
1	2	2275744	HEIL Jennifer	1983	CAN			1000.00
2	11	2484720	DUFOUR-LAPOINTE Chloe	1991	CAN			800.00
3	1	2328513	KEARNEY Hannah	1986	USA			600.00
4	6	2364117	MCPHIE Heather	1984	USA			500.00
5	3	2329677	ROBICHAUD Audrey	1988	CAN			450.00
6	4	2304360	RICHARDS Kristi	1981	CAN			400.00
7	9	2267596	SUDOVA Nikola	1982	CZE			360.00
8	8	2481681	STOLYAROVA Ekaterina	1988	RUS			320.00
9	7	2329386	OUTTRIM Eliza	1985	USA			290.00
10	10	2485019	RAKHIMOVA Regina	1985	RUS			260.00
11	12	2485027	PERTAKHIYA Marika	1992	RUS			240.00
12	34	2484416	COX Britteny	1994	AUS			220.00
13	21	2484830	MURATA Arisa	1990	JPN			200.00
14	25	2472175	SNYDERMAN Kayla	1988	USA			180.00
15	13	2526325	GUNCHENKO Anastassia	1991	RUS			160.00
16	14	2360722	SCANZIO Deborah	1986	ITA			150.00
17	23	2526184	VACULIKOVA Tereza	1992	CZE			140.00
18	22	2419989	KAFFKA Marina	1987	GER			130.00
19	29	2440553	PARKS Nicole	1992	AUS			120.00
20	33	2485108	HOSHINO Junko	1989	JPN			110.00
21	32	2485294	KOYANDER Ellie	1991	GBR			100.00
22	31	2527003	SEO Jee-Won	1994	KOR			90.00
23	28	2527012	GOBBI Samanta	1991	SUI			80.00
24	26	2373041	SANTA-OLALLA Reyes	1984	SPA			70.00
25	27	2529059	YANG Xue	1995	CHN			0.00
26	35	2529060	SHAO Junhan	1996	CHN			0.00

Men’s Results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Result	Level	Points
1	3	2426100	BILODEAU Alexandre	1987	CAN			1000.00
2	2	2484937	KINGSBURY Mikael	1992	CAN			800.00
3	13	2397776	NISHI Nobuyuki	1985	JPN			600.00
4	1	2337049	COLAS Guilbaut	1983	FRA			500.00
5	4	2382838	DENEEN Patrick	1987	USA			450.00
6	18	2482554	VOLKOV Sergey	1987	RUS			400.00
7	17	2484682	KIRAMO Arttu	1990	FIN			360.00
8	34	2526132	MIETTUNEN Ville	1992	FIN			320.00
9	5	2484727	COTA Jeremy	1988	USA			290.00
10	6	2482457	SMYSHLYAEV Alexandr	1987	RUS			260.00
11	9	2484677	ROCHON Cedric	1990	CAN			240.00
12	11	2406797	BJOERNLUND Jesper	1985	SWE			220.00
13	15	2471011	DISCOE Joseph	1987	USA			200.00
14	32	2406506	SPETT Per	1985	SWE			180.00
15	14	2484952	GAGNON Marc-Antoine	1991	CAN			160.00
16	29	2407185	MATIZ Giacomo	1986	ITA			150.00
17	30	2527360	PENTTALA Jussi	1993	FIN			140.00
18	20	2417855	KASHIMA Sho	1986	USA			130.00
19	31	2318134	HALL Sam	1988	AUS			120.00
20	26	2407379	VACULIK Lukas	1986	CZE			110.00
21	35	2340929	NOVAK Vaclav	1987	CZE			100.00
22	25	2526312	ANDERSEN Tevje-Lie	1991	NOR			90.00
23	37	2354320	LAHTELA Juuso	1985	FIN			80.00
24	27	2526113	GRAHAM David	1991	AUS			70.00
25	38	2369743	LAFRANCHI Pablo	1986	SUI			60.00
26	43	2485295	LONGLEY Andrew	1990	GBR			50.00
27	28	2484758	SLATTEN Vinjar	1990	NOR			45.00
28	12	2484861	ENDO Sho	1990	JPN			40.00
29	7	2183982	ROUSSEAU Pierre-Alexandre	1979	CAN			36.00
30	41	2526980	STEPHENSON Bradley	1988	RSA			0.00
31	24	2485300	GUMMESSON Adam	1989	SWE			0.00
32	40	2529062	SUN Renze	1994	CHN			0.00
Did not finish
		2525925	THORKILSEN Gustav-Muus	1981	DAN
		2527908	KIM Ji-Hyon	1995	KOR