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Canada’s Kingsbury captures moguls gold at World Cup to lock up Crystal globe

Feb 18, 2017 | 4:45 AM

TAZAWAKO, Japan — Mikael Kingsbury locked up his sixth consecutive Crystal globe on Saturday by leading Canada to a three-medal performance at a World Cup moguls competition.

Kingsbury finished first in the men’s event with a score of 89.99 for his 39th career victory, breaking Eric Laboureix’s record for most overall freestyle skiing victories on the FIS World Cup circuit.

“It’s unbelievable,” Kingsbury said. “Every year has been crazy. I’m just very excited that I’ve been able to win the Crystal globe already … I’m going to have fun the rest of the season.”

Teammate Philippe Marquis of Quebec City was second with 86.37 and Benjamin Cavet of France was third at 85.62.

Kingsbury said he was able to keep his focus on a challenging hill.

“The moguls were not easy today but it kept get getting better with every run,” he said. “I followed the plan and did a cork 1080 on the top air and a cork 720 on the bottom. It was the first time that I did it this way in single moguls competition and it earned me a better air score.

“I think that I will do the same again in the future.”

Marquis felt he had a strong performance as well.

“It feels great to win a second medal in a row after my silver at Pyeongchang last week, where I also skied very well,” he said. “But it feels even better to know that we have made the right decisions. The snow was really sticky today. We had to be strategic and it paid off.”

Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh of Quebec City was 13th, Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., was 14th, Calgary’s Luke Ulsifer was 31st and Laurent Dumais of Quebec City was 37th.

On the women’s side, Andi Naude of Penticton, B.C., won bronze, finishing behind Australia’s Britteny Cox and France’s Perrine Laffont with 76.37 points.

“I’m just really psyched to be able to put down those runs and continue this momentum heading on to the end of the season,” Naude said.

Chloe Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal was fifth, Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City was eighth, Alex-Anne Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., was 12th, Montreal’s Maxime Dufour-Lapointe was 13th and Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal was 33rd.

Kingsbury, from Deux-Montagnes, Que., continues to lead the overall and moguls World Cup standings while Justine Dufour-Lapointe is the top Canadian woman in the moguls rankings in third.

The Canadian Press