Kingsbury and Dufour-Lapointe win silver on three-medal day for Canada

TAZAWAKO, Japan – Mikael Kingsbury settled for silver Saturday on a three-medal day for Canada at the FIS World Cup moguls competition.

Kingsbury finished in second place with a score of 86.09, just behind American Bradley Wilson (86.14). France’s Perrine Laffont outscored Chloe Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal and Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City in the women’s competition for her first World Cup victory.

Kingsbury, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., entered as the defending champion and led the field after qualification. It was the overall leader’s fourth podium appearance in five World Cup events this season.

“I’m pretty pleased with how all my runs went and with the fact that I was first coming out of qualifications,” said Kingsbury. “I think I could have done a little more in the finals to win the competition. Overall the day was really good and I look forward to another chance at winning a World Cup tomorrow when I can come back and defend my dual moguls title from last year.”

Australian Matt Graham was third with a score of 83.05 and Philippe Marquis of Quebec City was fifth with 82.18. Laffont’s score of 78.91 was enough to top Dufour-Lapointe (78.06) and Robichaud (77.83).

“Today the race went really well and I skied really well. I’m happy with my jumping and how I picked up speed in the bumps,” said Robichaud. “My training was consistent all week and that helped. The course wasn’t easy, but we had a lot of fun skiing today.

“I’m really happy making it to the podium once again in Japan and I hope I can do it again tomorrow.”

Andi Naude of Penticton, B.C., finished fifth and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe was seventh. Overall World Cup leader Justine Dufour-Lapointe, also from Montreal, was 15th.