Huge day for Japan's moguls stars to close out the week in Deer Valley
Jan 15, 2022·Freestyle
The final day of action at the Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International saw the second of this week’s back-to-back moguls World Cup competitions take to Deer Valley’s (USA) legendary Champion Run, where Anri Kawamura and Ikuma Horishima put down exceptional runs to sweep the top of the DV podium for Japan.
After finishing runner-up in their respective competitions in Thursday’s action, Kawamura and Horishima both looked to be on an absolute mission for the top of the podium throughout the day on Friday - especially in the superfinals, where each of the Japanese athletes dropped last, faced the pressure and rose to the occasion in impressive fashion.
KAWAMURA RETAKES MOGULS WORLD CUP LEAD WITH LAST-RUN EXCELLENCE
For Kawamura in the women’s competition this meant that her final run of the day would come just after Jakara Anthony (AUS) and Perrine Laffont (FRA) had put down exceptional runs of their own to be sitting 1-2 on the leaderboard, respectively.
Staring down the imposing Champion Run with the moguls World Cup leader Laffont and the moguls & dual moguls overall World Cup leader Anthony staring back up at her from the finish corral, Kawamura simply dropped in and did what she’s been doing throughout the 2021/22 season - as she executed her turns to near perfection, stomped two solid airs, and crossed the finish line with the one of the fastest times of the day to claim the victory with a score of 80.89.
“It’s amazing,” Kawamura smiled from the finish area after her winning run, “I’m so proud of myself, getting this victory right before the Olympics. I’m super happy to be here.”
The win was Kawamura’s third of the season and the third of her career, and was also her first victory on Deer Valley’s hallowed slopes, and with her win the 17-year-old was able to reclaim the yellow moguls World Cup leader bib that Laffont had taken from her after the previous day’s competition. Kawamura now has 549 points on the individual moguls World Cup standings, while Laffont has 510.
Though Anthony would be denied her fourth victory of the season, with a score of 80.38 and a second place result she now has podiums in eight of nine moguls events this season, maintaining her lead on the moguls overall World Cup standings with 665 points to Laffont’s 626.
Thursday’s winner Laffont would have to settle for third place in what was an incredibly tight competition on Friday in Deer Valley. With Laffont scoring an 80.02 to round out the podium, all of the top-3 women’s skiers would finish the day separated by less than one point.
HORISHIMA GOES ALL-IN AS JAPAN SWEEPS TOP OF PODIUM
In the men’s event Ikuma Hiroshima was simply not messing around in what was the final run of another exceptional week in Deer Valley.
Dropping last in the superfinal, immediately after Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury had put down a textbook effort on Champion Run for a score of 82.84, Horishima absolutely attacked the moguls course that is considered by many to be the toughest in the world.
Not only did Horishima put down the second fastest time of the superfinal while also clocking the second highest turn scores, he did so while throwing the highest-scoring jump package, launching both his top air back-full and bottom air corked 1080 to the very limits of the landing zone and stomping clean.
It was an exceptional showing, with Horishima taking his run right to the edge of what’s possible in Deer Valley, and he was rewarded accordingly with the highest score of the day for his efforts - an 84.04.
“This is the last World Cup before the Olympics,” Horishima said just before the awards ceremony, “And I’m so happy to win this competition, to get this win. It will be exciting to take this momentum to the Olympics.”
With the victory Horishima keeps his incredible 2021/22 World Cup podium streak alive, as he has now hit the top-3 in nine-of-nine competitions this season.
Still, with a score of 82.84 and second place, Kingsbury was able to hold on to top spot on the individual moguls and the moguls overall World Cup standing, with 572 points to Horishima’s 560 in individual moguls, and with 772 points to Horishima’s 700 on the overall rankings. Friday's podium was the 101st of Kingsbury’s career, and he now has six wins and eight podiums in the season’ nine events.
Third place for the men went to Sweden’s Walter Wallberg (SWE), as the 21-year-old skied a blistering run for a score of 79.62 and his fourth podium in the last five World Cup competitions. Wallberg now sits in third place on all three of the moguls, dual moguls, and moguls overall leaderboards.
With the celebration of all things freestyle that is the Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International now in the books for another season, we’ll take a couple weeks to charge the batteries before the big show, as moguls competition will open proceedings at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, with qualifications going down on February 3rd and night finals on February 5th.
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