Val St.-Côme (QC), Canada – Canadian National Freestyle Team members Audrey Robichaud and Mikael Kingsbury took the Canada Post National Mogul Championships held at Val St.-Côme on Friday in an event that was hampered by unseasonably warm and wet weather in Quebec.

Despite heroic measures by event organizers and volunteers, rain and temperatures well above freezing last week meant that maintaining snow cover on the Alexandre Bilodeau mogul course was a huge challenge. By Friday the temperatures had cooled somewhat, but it was too late. The course was a swath of white flanked by brown dirt on either side and the jumps were encased in plywood in an attempt to keep them solid enough to launch skiers into their acrobatic tricks.

After the qualification runs on Friday morning, rocks and bare patches began to appear and organizers deemed the course unsafe for the finals rounds. As a result, qualification results stood as final results. Quebec City’s Robichaud, who earned her first FIS World Cup win earlier this season in Japan, was crowned Canada’s women’s champion, her first career National Single Moguls title, with a score of 26.21.

“It’s just great because I’ve never been National Champ in singles, which means a lot to me. It feels good,” said Robichaud, who has taken the top prize in duals. “With the rocks and little rivers under the course here it was pretty sketchy, I can’t believe the volunteers pulled this out to keep the course together even to get the qualification run on this morning.”

Spruce Grove, Alberta’s Chelsea Henitiuk and Lorraine, Quebec’s Alexandra Dufresne took home their first single mogul national medals, a silver and bronze, respectively, with scores of 23.65 and 22.99.

On the men’s side, 2012 FIS World Cup points leader Mikael Kingsbury took his third straight national title with a score of 26.06. It was a storybook ending to an amazing season for the 19-year-old Deux-Montagnes, Quebec native who earned 13 World Cup podiums this year.

“It’s always great to be the Canadian Champion, with our super strong team that’s a big title,” said Kingsbury. “I remember when I was on the (Quebec) provincial team I was always looking up to National Team guys, and this was the big event for me so it brings back good memories to compete with all those provincial team guys.”

He added that Friday’s conditions were very challenging. “Slushy bumps are usually easy, but today the moguls were too soft. You had to ski on the tops of the moguls or else you would punch front because the moguls were big and the snow was really heavy. I think they did a good job with the course to keep it clean for qualifications, but it was a good decision to cancel the final. People were starting to crash trying to avoid the rocks and dirt.”

P-O Gagné of Montreal took second place on his home mountain at 24.36. The 22-year-old National C Team member had a breakout season, culminating in making finals at two World Cup events. Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Quebec who earned his first World Cup medal this season, a bronze in France, was third at 24.04.

Because of the unseasonably warm temperatures and wet weather at Val-St.Côme the aerials event, scheduled for Saturday, and the dual mogul event scheduled for Sunday were both cancelled.

“Despite their best efforts, the hill crew could not keep up with the deteriorating snow conditions to the point that it became a safety concern,” said race Technical Director John Pomeroy.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Canada Post National Championships
Val St.-Côme (QC), Canada – Mar. 23, 2012
Moguls

WOMEN – top 12

MEN – Top 16