Aussie Winter Olympians grab World Cup medals
Melissa Woods |
Jakara Anthony has clinched gold and Matt Graham silver in a weather-affected moguls World Cup event at Val St Come in Canada, the Australian duo moving to the top of the overall season standings in the process.
The women’s finals were unable to be held on Friday (local time) due to the lack of visibility on the course and the event was eventually decided on qualification scores.
Olympic champion Anthony topped qualifying with a score of 79.83, finishing ahead of American duo Tess Johnson (75.85) and Olivia Giaccio (75.78).
It was Anthony’s second successive gold medal after she and teammate Graham won the last World Cup in Finland in December and bodes well for her Games’ title defence in less than a month’s time in Italy.
“It was a different victory tonight, pretty weird competition day, but having put it down in qualifications worked out for me with finals cancelled,” Anthony said.
“I find it pretty important to put down the best run that I can from round to round, with the goal to build throughout the day, so that’s just what I was out there doing.”
Anthony will now wear the leader’s yellow bib at the next World Cup event in Waterville in the United States on January 15-16.
The men’s event was delayed and had to be completed in a reduced format in icy conditions which saw a number of competitors unable to finish their run.
Graham, who won Olympic silver in 2018, was fifth after the qualifying run, with Korean young gun Daeyoon Jung setting the pace.
Rather than a top-six super final, places were awarded from the top-16 second run where 31-year-old Graham powered down the course to finish second, scoring 83.50 behind Kingsbury.
Kingsbury, 33, withdrew from the Ruka World Cup due to a groin injury from training and was elated to again top the podium, underlining his status as the GOAT of moguls skiing.
American Nick Page was third with 80.96 while young Australian Jackson Harvey gave his Olympic selection case a major boost with a career-best seventh placing.
Graham has also taken over the yellow leader’s bib for Waterville, where the event was relocated to due to a lack of snow in Deer Valley.
The skiers will now compete in the dual moguls over the weekend in Quebec, with the event a new edition to the Olympic schedule.
Meanwhile, in Aspen at the snowboard halfpipe World Cup, Valentino Guseli narrowly missed a medal by finishing fourth.
Coming off his victory in Calgary, Guseli scored 86.75 with Japan’s Yuto Totsuka taking the honours with a score of 90.50.
The win meant Totsuka overtook Guseli in the overall season standings.
AAP
