Canadians Bellemare, Purnelle-Faniel win bronze at freestyle World Cup

Canadian slopestyle skiers Alex Bellemare and Anouk Purnelle-Faniel both earned bronze medals on Saturday at a freestyle World Cup in Font Romeu, France.

Challenging weather conditions forced the organizing committee to use the qualification round results as final results. Both Canadians qualified third in their respective events.

Bellemare, from St-Boniface, Que., did a double-twelve into a switch double-twelve to the left and finished with a double-1080 to earn 90.60 points. McRae Williams of the United States won gold with 92.80 points and Sweden’s Jesper Tjader won silver (91.40).

“I skied my qualifications anticipating that they counted as my final runs,” Bellemare said. “On the flipside, we know that the FIS typically pushes for the events to move forward. I wasn’t too surprised, and I think that advantaged me.”

Purnelle-Faniel, from Lac-Beauport, Que., took a similar strategy to Bellemare, laying down a clean consistent run during her one and only qualification run for a score of 78.40.

Tess Ledeux of France was first (81.60) and Johanne Killi places second (80.00).

“Due to conditions, I didn’t execute the run I was hoping for, but I’m happy to have landed on my feet with one run,” said Purnelle-Faniel.

Yuki Tsubota finished seventh after the single qualification run.