Freestyle

Kearney Back On Top in Inawashiro

by
USSA
2014-03-02 06:13
 

INAWASHIRO, Japan (March 2) – Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT) retook her spot at the top of the World Cup moguls standings Sunday with a win at the Inawashiro dual moguls competition. She answered swiftly after a DNF Saturday to take back the yellow bib from Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who finished ninth Sunday. Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) skied into the top spot for the men in fifth behind duals winner Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury. Next, the World Cup tour heads to Voss, Norway for a moguls and dual moguls event March 15-16.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT) retook her spot at the top of the World Cup moguls standings Sunday with a win at the Inawashiro dual moguls competition.
  • She answered swiftly after a DNF Saturday to take back the yellow bib from Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who finished ninth Sunday. Kearney leads with a 590-565 margin.
  • Kearney beat Elena Muratova of Russia for the win in the final head-to-head battle. It was her first-ever victory at the tricky Japanese venue.
  • Heather McPhie (Bozeman, MT) finished just off the podium after losing the fight for third to Japan’s Junko Hoshino.
  • Four U.S. women skied into the top ten with Sophia Schwartz (Steamboat Springs, CO) seventh and Eliza Outtrim (Hamden, CT) tenth. Ali Kariotis (Tiburon, CA) finished 14th.
  • Patrick Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) skied into the top spot for the men in fifth, while Bradley Wilson and brother Bryon Wilson (both Butte, MT) skied head-to-head in the first round. Bryon beat Bradley and went on to finish seventh, putting Bradley in 11th after taking the win in Saturday’s moguls competition.
  • Joe Discoe (Telluride, CO), Jeremy Cota (Carrabassett Valley, ME) and Troy Murphy (Bethel, ME) also skied in the first round of 16, where they finished 12th, 14th and 16th respectively.
  • Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury took the top spot over Sho Endo with Pascal-olivier Gagne third.
  • Sunday was the first dual moguls event of the season. The preceding World Cup events utilized a new Olympic format in advance of the moguls event at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.
  • New snow and fog brought a few delays in the early stages of Sunday’s event, but it went smoothly once the athletes began skiing.
  • Next, the World Cup tour heads to Voss, Norway for a moguls and dual moguls event March 15-16.

QUOTES
Hannah Kearney
There's always an element of luck with mogul skiing. I had a bad top jump yesterday after I hit the mogul, exploded and lost my ski. It was definitely rough but it was up to me to not feel sorry for myself after a few bad results. I talked to all my coaches today and I knew I needed to just focus on my skiing skills and getting down the course. Not the yellow bib, or the globe or the Olympics or my retirement. And turns out I had a much better result. 

This was the best I've ever skied on this course. My best result here before today was third. It's a challenging course. We woke up with about three inches of fresh powder but the snow here is packed. It's warm and humid with some deep moguls. 

RESULTS
Official Men’s Results
Official Women’s Results

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