Laffont and Kingsbury back on top in Idre’s dual moguls
Dec 12, 2021·Freestyle
The second and final day of the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup event in Idre Fjall (SWE) closed out successfully with Perrine Laffont (FRA) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) coming back to their winning ways in the first dual moguls competition of the 2021/22 season.
With 2021/22 being the first season in which women’s and men’s dual moguls crystal globes will be awarded, along with the existing moguls and the new overall moguls crystal globe award structure, the anticipation for Sunday’s duals competition was pretty high, to say the least.
With women’s preliminary rounds already completed on Friday and men’s early heats done earlier in the morning, the top athletes were all ready for their duals showdowns in the round of 16, hoping to qualify through next two head-to-head battles to finally fight for victory in the big final.
In the women’s competition Perrine Laffont showed that she’s still in the game after somehow a slow start into the season for the four-time moguls World Cup champion. Following her fourth place finish in Ruka as well as her second place on Saturday, Laffont stepped things up a notch on Sunday edging out the likes of Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), Sofiane Gagnon (CAN), Jakara Anthony (AUS) and finally Rino Yanagimoto (JPN) in the big final, for her first victory in 2021/22.
“It was a great weekend,” said Laffont, “Second place yesterday and today back on top of the podium. The course in Idre is pretty wild and very fast so I’m really happy with two good results here.”
Despite trailing to Laffont in the big final, Yanagimoto achieved her career’s best result with her very first World Cup top-3 finish.
Third place on the day went to Jakara Anthony, who came victorious in the small final matchup against Olivia Giaccio (USA).
With the win on Sunday Laffont took the lead in the dual moguls as well as the overall moguls standing (moguls and dual moguls combined) where she leads the way with 230 points after three competitions so far in 2021/22.
Moving over to the men’s part of competitions in Idre, it was Mikael Kingsbury who bounced back in style from his eight place finish on Saturday, as he snagged his career’s 67th World Cup victory. On his way to top of the podium in Sunday’s duals, Kingsbury prevailed in all of his matchups against Martin Suire (FRA), Bradley Wilson (USA), Oskar Elofsson (SWE) to finally come victorious against his biggest rival in the recent years - Ikuma Horishima (JPN).
“It feels good for sure,” said Kingsbury when asked about his victory in Idre, “I was pretty disappointed yesterday, it was first super final I missed on a kind of stupid mistake I did. I was bummed, but I used it as motivation to redeem myself and ski better today.”
WIth Kingsbury in first place, Horishima had to settle for second place on the day, earning his third podium of the season. With three solid results so far in the World Cup campaign Horishima leads the way in moguls as well as overall moguls ranking.
Ludvig Fjallstrom rounded out the men’s podium in third place after coming victorious against his teammate Oskar Elofsson in all Swedish small final matchup.
The FIS Freestyle Ski Moguls World Cup now moves on to France for another pair of moguls and dual moguls events on December 17-18 at the brand new World Cup venue in Alpe d’Huez.
QUICK LINKS:
Idre World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
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