Canada’s Kingsbury wins second moguls World Cup of season

THAIWOO, China — Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury skied to his second victory in as many competitions this season at Saturday’s single moguls World Cup event in Thaiwoo, China.

After winning the moguls event last weekend in Ruka, Finland — the first competition of the FIS World Cup season — Kingsbury took the gold medal in China with a final-run score of 90.31, beating Japan’s Ikuma Horishima (87.68) and Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Reikherd (86.92).

After getting the top score in qualifications, Kingsbury settled for second place behind Horishima after the first run of the finals, but bounced back in the end to capture the gold.

“It was a very tough day for me. There’s a gastro bug going around here and I started feeling sick yesterday,” said Kingsbury after earning his 51st career World Cup victory and 75th medal.

“I was sick during the night and even lost six pounds.”

Kingsbury earned his fifthstraight victory in as many starts in Thaiwoo since 2016. This is the third time the Canadian freestyle skiing team has competed in World Cup competitions at this venue, where several competitions will be held in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“I don’t know what it is about this place,” said Kingsbury.

“It appears to be a run that suits me well. There’s also the fact that the level of competition here is high, as it is elsewhere. Skiers like Dmitriy [Reikherd], Ikuma [Horishima] and Ben [Benjamin Cavet of France, who finished fourth on Saturday] push me to do my best.”

The other Canadian skier in the men’s finals, Brenden Kelly, finished 10th.

On the women’s side, Chloe Dufour-Lapointe finished fifth with 72.79 points in a competition won by American skier Jaelin Kauf (83.08).

Dufour-Lapointe’s fifth-place showing stands as her best single moguls result since finishing fifth at the World Cup in Tazawako, Japan in February 2017.