Cox and Kingsbury once again on top in Ruka’s season opener
Aug 31, 2018·Freestyle
Ruka (FIN) - One of the most anticipated days on the FIS Freestyle calendar came to pass on Saturday with the first competition of the 2017/18 moguls World Cup season taking to the slopes of Ruka (FIN), where Britteny Cox (AUS) easily repeated her winning ways on the course where she scored the first victory of her career last season, and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) made some more history with his eighth-straight victory (dating back to last season).
Located just south of the Arctic Circle, days in December at Ruka are spent in a near total darkness which, combined with the fresh snowfall blanketing the moguls and flying off the charging athletes’ skis, made for a cinematic scene under the lights on the resort’s “Battery Run” moguls venue on Saturday afternoon.
After capturing her maiden victory in Ruka last season, Britt Cox went on to score six more wins over the course of 2016/17 on her way to winning both the moguls and Freestyle overall crystal globes in a breakout season, establishing herself as the best ladies moguls skier in the world in just a few short months of work.
So while she was an underdog before that first victory at Ruka last season, Cox is now the favourite, and looked absolutely comfortable in that position on Saturday. Putting down one confident run after the other, Cox lead through all three phases of the competition, from qualification right to her victory. Though she did get a bit of help when top challenger Perrine Lafont (FRA) skied out of her line in the super final and ruined any chances of a podium, it seems likely that Cox would have been untouchable on the day no matter what.
“It feels great to start the season like this,” said Cox on her win, “It’s nice in the first event of the season to see that my hard work over the summer has been worth it. I’m looking forward to building on that through the winter. And it being an Olympic season it’s obviously very exciting, that’s the pinnacle event of the season and everyone’s motivated. But I’m just going to take it week by week and keep building on my skiing each week and enjoying every run that I ski.”
Second place for the ladies’ went to Audrey Robichaud (CAN) who was perhaps the only athlete who skied the Ruka course as confidently as Cox, and the Canadian had far-and-away the best jumping scores of the super final on the extremely demanding Ruka course. The second-place result was Robichaud’s first World Cup podium since February 2016, and her first podium at Ruka in six career attempts.
Third for the ladies belonged to one excited young lady from Russia, as Marika Pertakhiya scored her first career World Cup podium in her 69th competition. And she did so in impressive fashion, aggressively skiing the tough Ruka course that threw off so many top competitors on the day.
Kingsbury registers record eighth-straight victory
It was another day of glory for Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury in Ruka, as the winningest men’s moguls skier of all time registered yet another record, winning his eighth straight World Cup competition dating back to early February of last season.
And it was by no means an easy victory for the 25-year-old from Quebec, as he found himself fighting from behind throughout the competition after qualifying in third place before getting through to the superfinal in second behind Dmitriy Reikherd (KAZ).
With Reikherd clearly feeling confident in the tricky conditions, the pressure was on for Kingsbury in a big way before his superfinal run, as he had to anticipate another strong lap from the Kazakh skier dropping just after him. However, as he’s done so many times before, Kingsbury rose to the occasion, saving his best for last and scoring an 87.45 to take the record-setting win.
“I’m very happy with the way I skied all day,” said Kingsbury after awards, “I was third after qualification, second in the first final, and I just kept improving and finished at the right moment with my best run. Dmitriy Reikherd was skiing amazing today. Even my run in the first final, I was very happy with it, but it wasn’t enough. So in the superfinal I changed my top air to a double-full, then tried to push in the middle to cut a half-second off my time if I could, and I was able to do that today.
“It’s my sixth win here in Ruka and I just love this course. It’s a blessing for me to be able to start the season off here on the right note.”
Reikherd’s score of 85.11 gave him a second-place finish and the eighth podium of his career. His most recent podium before Saturday in Ruka came at the test event for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games last season at Phoenix Park (KOR), where he also finished just behind Kingsbury. Now in his 12th season on the moguls World Cup, Reikherd continues to find ways to surprise and impress, and his performance on Saturday in Ruka was another example of this.
Making for a fantastic day for the Kazakh moguls team was the performance of Pavel Kolmakov, who followed veteran Reikherd’s lead in attacking the piste at Ruka throughout the day to earn a superfinal score of 84.44, third place, and the first podium of his career.
From Ruka, the moguls tour moves on to Thaiwoo (CHN) for back-to-back World Cup competitions on 21 and 22 December, just before the FIS Freestyle tour takes a step back for the holiday break.
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