Val St. Côme (QC), Canada – The Canadian National Freestyle Team swept the men’s and women’s podiums at Friday’s Canada Post National Championships on a steep and icy course at the Centre d’Excellence acrobatique in Val St. Côme.nIn the women’s division, Kristi Richards from Summerland, British Columbia was crowned Canadian Champion for the second year in a row, hanging on to the leader’s red bib with a score of 22.01. Sisters Chloé and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe from Montreal joined Richards on the podium in second and third positions at 21.91 and 20.01, respectively.
“It definitely feels really good to hold on to the red bib, especially at the end of a long, hard season,” said Richards, who had trouble in Friday’s qualification run and finished 10th after she hit some ice chunks and momentarily veered out of her line. “This course today was gnarly, it warmed up and was slushy yesterday, then dropped to minus 10 today, so as you can imagine it was an entire block of ice with nice big sharp ice-chunk moguls. Really, my first run was terrible, but I laid it down for finals.”
Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, who is still suffering the effects of a hip injury from early in the season, said, “I had so much fun, I had good jumps and good training; and I have lots of family and friends here to watch so it was a great day. But, I’m looking forward to resting after the season and working with physio on my hip.”
Chloe’s big sister, Maxime, was also happy with her performance. “I think I was a little more fearless in finals and tried to go as high as I could in my 360 and as fast as I could in my run.”
All three of the top women said they were encouraged about the future of Canada’s freestyle program by watching some of the young talent from across the country who traveled to Quebec to compete.
Andi Naude, 15, from Penticton, British Columbia, who won the Canada Winter Games and and Junior Nationals this season especially caught the attention of Richards. “I’m definitely excited for Andi, she’s from my home hill and I love watching her ski and watching her progress as an athlete and as a person,” Richards said. “She’s super determined and committed. I try to encourage her all the time, I hope that in the future I get a chance to take her under my wing and coach her a bit.”
Naude finished the day in 4th position.
Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who was the FIS Rookie of the Year, had a disappointing 17th birthday after she crossed her tips in her qualification round and failed to advance to finals.
On the men’s side, Mikael Kingsbury was overjoyed to sew up his breakout season with a score of 25.15 that earned him a prestigious National Championship title.
“It was a great day, I really wanted that title this year and I was a little nervous on the top because I knew the guys before me had good runs I didn’t push my max, but I skied clean and it went well,” he said.
Kingsbury, who earned two World Championship medals and eight World Cup medals this year said he’s not really looking forward to his well-earned vacation, “Actually, I want to get back to summer training as soon as possible, so I can be stronger next year.”
Langley, British Columbia’s Eddie Hicks posted his best-ever Nationals finish, winning the silver medal at 23.83 and Quebec City’s Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh bested last year’s seventh place showing with the bronze medal at 23.78.
“It feels really good,” said Hicks, “I know I’m capable of being on top and there’s certainly no shame in losing to [Kingsbury].
For his part, Pouliot-Cavanagh, said he really enjoyed competing against his teammates. “We know Canada is a strong team and we have fun at Nationals,” he said.
Olympic Champion Alex Bilodeau is suffering a bruised heel and did not compete Friday.
Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said he while he wasn’t surprised that National Team members earned all the top spots in the event, he was encouraged by the strength and depth of talent he saw from the provincial athletes.