Lemley claims career’s first win, Kingsbury back on top in Idre DM
Dec 14, 2022·Freestyle
The second and final day of the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup event in Idre Fjall (SWE) closed out successfully with Elizabeth Lemley (USA) claiming her career’s first victory in the women’s competition, while Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) came back to his winning way over in the men’s event.
Sunday’s competition acted as the first dual moguls event of the 2022/23 World Cup campaign, also being the very first DM event after its inclusion to the Olympic Winter Games programme earlier this year.
With women’s and men’s preliminary rounds taking place early 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 the 2022 Rookie of the Year Elizabeth Lemley came with an impressive performance and snagged her very first World Cup victory. Following her two top-10 results in the previous competitions, Lemley stepped things up a notch on Sunday edging out the likes of Hinako Tomitaka (JPN), Avital Carroll (AUT), Jakara Anthony (AUS) and finally Anri Kawamura (JPN) in the super final.
With Lemley in top spot, Kawamura finished the competition in second place consequently, for her third top-3 spot in 2022/23 and her second runner-up position this weekend in Idre.
Third place on the day went to Perrine Laffont (FRA), who came victorious in the small final matchup against Jakara Anthony (AUS), which was also a third consecutive top-3 finish for the 2021/22 moguls World Cup champion.
Despite finishing outside the podium for the first time this season, Anthony remains in overall moguls World Cup ranking’s top spot with 250 points after three events, with Kawamura in second (220 points) and Anthony in third (200 points).
Moving over to the men’s part of competitions in Idre, it was Mikael Kingsbury who bounced back in style from his second place finish on Saturday, as he snagged his career’s 76th World Cup victory.
On his way to victory in Sunday’s duals, Kingsbury prevailed in all of his matchups against Julien Viel (CAN), Severi Vierela (FIN), Cole McDonald (USA) to finally come victorious against the Swedish up-and-comer and the fastest man on course this past weekend - Filip Gravenfors (SWE).
After recording his career’s best results in Saturday’s moguls event, where he finished in eight place, Gravenfors stormed to his first top-3 finish in just his eight World Cup start.
Rounding out the men’s podium in third place was Saturday’s winner Nick Page, who won a tight all-American small final matchup against his teammate and good friend Cole McDonald.
With Idre’s event in the books Kingsbury leads the way in the overall moguls World Cup ranking with 280 points, ahead of second Nick Page (210 points) and third Ikuma Horishima (159 points).
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.
WINNING RUNS
QUICK LINKS:
Idre Fjall World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
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