Kauf and Kingsbury victorious on day one in Thaiwoo
Aug 31, 2018·Freestyle
Thaiwoo (CHN) - The first day of back-to-back moguls World Cup events at the future 2022 Winter Olympic Games venue in Thaiwoo went into the books with Jaelin Kauf (USA) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) taking top spots in yet another tight and exciting competition.
The second event of the season took place on the Chinese venue's prime custom-made moguls course that made an hugely successful World Cup debut last year, and once again the Thaiwoo course provided plenty of superb moguls action with perfect snow conditions, mild temperatures and blue skies all playing along to deliver a world-class show.
And with everyone pushing hard from the early rounds, Thursday’s competition was without a doubt one to remember, thrilling the fans gathered at the base of Thaiwoo ski resort as well as those in front of the TV screen with some unexpected outcomes as well as the record breaking moments.
In the ladies’ competition it was Jaelin Kauf who came in hot and grabbed her career’s second victory as well as the lead in the overall moguls World Cup standings. The 21-year-old ripper started off the competition rather slowly, qualifying into the finals from the 13th spot. Once there however, Kauf used everything she had in the tank to come out on top of the standings in both Final 1 and Final 2, skiing the fastest lines and setting one of the highest turn scores on the day.
“It’s incredible,” said Kauf following the awards ceremony. “It feels great to have my whole team here and also to walk away with the yellow bib. I'm still trying to process it all, but I’m really happy that I was able to stay consistent and put down two quality runs in the finals.”
Second place on the day went to Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), while Andi Naude (CAN) rounded out the podium on third, losing to Galysheva by a slightest of margins in the tight final, just 0.15 points off the Kazakh and only 0.26 points behind Kauf.
Probably the biggest surprise on the day was a poor performance from last year's moguls World Cup winner Britteny Cox. The Australian skier had a perfect start into the new season two weeks ago in Ruka, where she ended up on top of the podium. However on Saturday, Cox couldn’t really stick her run, encountering a couple of mistakes on her way down in the qualifiers to finish the competition well back in 25th position.
Over on the men’s side of the event, the unbeatable Mikael Kingsbury claimed his ninth-straight World Cup win, boosting his career’s total count to an incredible 44 victories in 82 World Cup starts.
Despite making a couple of minor mistakes during his final run, he was able to step things up in the super final and, with his trademark style, marched on to yet another great victory on the venue where he closed out the last seasons with a double triumph in moguls and dual moguls.
And while Matt Graham, dropping after Kingsbury in the super final, initially received a higher score than the Candian, quickly it became clear that the judges made an error and put the wrong code on Kingsbury’s jump. Once the judges fixed the scoring issue, Kingsbury got back on top of the ranking thus pushing the Australian skier into second place.
“Wow, that’s nine wins in a row already,” echoed Kingsbury from the finish line. “But for me coming into the new season it’s just like back-to-back, first winning Ruka, now also winning here. I was able to put down the run I wanted in the super finals so it’s good to be back here in China and feel confident in the start gate. Everything is building up in the right direction so I’m very happy”, he finished.
Representing USA, the 25-year-old veteran Troy Murphy was finally able to land ‘a run of his life’ and grab the highly anticipated World Cup podium that was on his radar since his first appearance on tour back in 2012. Murphy didn’t hide his joy following the flower ceremony and assured he will be aiming for more good results as the season continues.
The moguls World Cup action is back on track on Sunday, with the second of back-to-back competitions in Thaiwoo slated to get underway on 13:30 local time.
QUICK LINKS:
TV BROADCAST SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
Asia - Eurosport 1
Europe - delayed at 10:30 CET on Europosrt 1
France - SFR 3
Korea - SBS
Japan - JSports
Kazakhstan - QAZ Sport TV
USA - live-stream on nbcsports.com
