World champion Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., highlighted a triple medal performance for Canada on Thursday with a gold medal in men’s dual moguls at the season opening event on the freestyle skiing FIS World Cup circuit.
Rousseau defeated Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemère, Que., in the men’s final while Olympic champion Jennifer Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta., raced for the first time in 20 months and also took silver in the women’s dual moguls event.
In men’s dual moguls, Rousseau and Bilodeau were almost mirror images in the final from start to finish.
”It’s a fantastic way to start the season,” said Rousseau, 29, after his fourth career World Cup win. “Alex beat me last season at the Canadian Championships and now it’s my turn. He’s my toughest opponent in dual moguls and we really push each other. I know it’s going to be fast against him and you have to push to the limit. It was so close today… we were in sync racing down the course.”
Bilodeau wasn’t disappointed in the least to lose the final. Less than two months ago he suffered a foot fracture and aced his first major test on Thursday.
”I’m super satisfied,” said Bilodeau, 21, savouring a 12th career World Cup medal. “I was pretty nervous heading into the competition. I had a tough November and it was very stressful to get back on the hills. I was limping for three weeks and I couldn’t put too much pressure on the foot. Today’s result is not a loss for me at all. It gives me a lot of momentum for the rest of the season.”
Vincent Marquis of Quebec City was 11th.
In women’s dual moguls, Hannah Kearney of the U.S., defeated Heil in the final. Heil, 25, who now resides in Montreal, took last season off to work on improving some technical aspects of her body positioning. Her return Thursday proves her 20 months of hard work in the gym has paid off.
”Getting back in that starting gate I realized how much I missed the thrill of competition,” said Heil, a four-time overall World Cup champion. “I felt amazing and I’m so happy with my result. There’s so much more I know I can do but today was a chance to show that I was back and contending.”
Heil finished fourth in qualifying and posted victories in her quarterfinal and semi-final duals.
”I made a mistake in the final against Hannah,” said Heil. “I came off the top jump and I just didn’t have total control and went off course a bit. I couldn’t make up for that. Still 20 months is a really long time and it was a big challenge to get back into the competitive environment.”
Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City was ninth, Stéphanie St-Pierre of Victoriaville, Que., 12th, Maxime Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal 13th, Kristi Richards of Summerland, B.C., 16th and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal, 21st.
The Aerials World Cup season gets underway Friday in China.
