Jakara Anthony claims gold in Sweden World Cup event
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Jakara Anthony has notched the 23rd World Cup victory of her glittering career, winning the first moguls skiing event of the 2024-2025 season at the Swedish resort of Idre Fjäll.
The reigning World Cup champion got stronger as the event progressed, qualifying for the finals in second spot with a score of 77.39.
The 26-year-old then took out the first round of finals on 80.36, ensuring the Cairns-born star would be the final skier for the event in the super-final medal round.
Anthony found another gear for the super-final, posting her highest score of the season with 82.94, to finish 2.05 points ahead of French rival Perrine Laffont (80.89) with Canadian Maya Schwinghammer third (80.71).
Joining Anthony in the women’s final was 19-year-old Charlotte Wilson, who had an impressive qualifying run in just her second World Cup start, advancing to the final in sixth place with a score of 72.84.
The teenager now holds the Australian record for qualifing for a World Cup final by a mogul skier with the least amount of starts.
Wilson finished 10th in the final with a score of 69.75 points, the first World Cup top-10 of her career.
But there was no stopping Anthony.
“It feels good to finish up in first place,” she said.
“I don’t think there was any more pressure than any other competition, I know what I am trying to achieve every time I am competing against the other girls but kind of just competing against myself in a way.”
In the men’s event, Matt Graham qualified for finals in fifth place but finished 11th, missing out on the top-six super final.
The men’s event was won by Canadian Mikael Kingsbury, with Ikuma Horishima of Japan in second and local Swedish skier Walter Wallberg finishing third.
On Sunday, the mogul skiers will be back in action in Idre Fjäll where they will compete in the first dual mogul World Cup event of the season
AAP
