FIS Open moguls event goes down in Idre
Nov 23, 2021·Freestyle
Once again this year, after weeks of training at the World Cup course in Idre Fjäll, the moguls athletes had a perfect opportunity to test their form while competing in back-to-back FIS Open competitions this past weekend.
The event in Idre was without a doubt a historic event in several ways, with a record-breaking number of participants as well a unique way of judging system. In order to facilitate more than 170 participants, the competition had to be conducted in a double-up format, splitting up the judging panel in half, in a similar way that is used for instance over on the freeski side.
The competition in Idre saw some of top World Cup athletes taking part in their first competition of the season with just two more weeks until the first World Cup of 2021/22 in Ruka. In the women’s field we could see the likes of Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (CAN) or Junko Hoshina (JPN), just to name a few of those WC veterans racing on Idre’s course this past weekend.
Over on the men’s side you could spot even more World Cup top guns like Ikuma Horishima (JPN), Daichi Hara (JPN), Dmitry Reikhard (KAZ), Dylan Walczyk (USA), Kerrian Chunlaud, Elofsson brothers - Felix and Oskar, and last but not least Walter Wallberg, who is finally back competing following a long break caused by his knee injury.
“It felt really good to compete again,” said Wallberg after two days of competition in Idre, ”Of course it was all a little bit nervous. I wanted to perform well and I did pretty good in training. I feel like I am at the level I want to be. I trust my riding and know what I can do. I'm just trying to focus on putting my runs down and I’m looking forward to be back skiing at World Cup soon.”
In Saturday’s competition it was the Japanese team that put as many as five riders into top-6 in women’s event with Rino Yanagimoto taking first place and Haruka Nakao following up in second. 15-year-old Elizabeth Lamley (USA) rounded out the women’s podium in third place.
In the men’s event Ikuma Horishima led the pack, finishing the day ahead of second Walter Wallberg and third Elliot Vaillancourt (CAN).
Moving to Sunday’s second competition Rino Yanagimoto took her second victory of the weekend, this time finishing ahead of the bronze World Championships medallist from Almaty - Anastassiya Gorodko (KAZ), and her Japanese teammate Yuki Kajiwara.
Over on the men’s side it was Cole McDonald (USA), who came in hot to upset all the favourites and took the very first victory of his career. Ikuma Horishima finished in second place, with Walter Wallberg completing the podium in third place.
Full results:
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