A double gold mogul weekend for Jakara Anthony, Boarder Cross bronze, cross country top-20s and halfpipe finals headline this weekend in winter sport.
Jak Goes Back to Back for Moguls Double Gold
Jakara Anthony had a near perfect weekend, winning World Cup gold in both the singles and duals events in Alpe d’Huez, France.
Starting with the singles event on Friday, Anthony placed first in all three stages of the event, scoring a massive 85.07 points in the super final to finish over eight points ahead of second place finisher Anri Kawamura of Japan with a score of 77.21 points, with American Tess Johnson taking home the bronze medal with 76.63 points.
Australian teammate, triple Olympian Britt Cox also reached the super final, finishing in a season’s best fourth with a score of 76.20, while Brodie Summers also impressed, narrowly missing the men’s super-final in seventh place.
Anthony followed this up with gold in the duals event, beating Russian Anastasiia Smirnova in the final to claim her first ever World Cup gold in the duals event.
Anthony has now podiumed in all four events to start the season, extending her lead as number one on the World Cup rankings.
Find out more here.
Back to Back Boarder Cross Podiums for Brockhoff
Belle Brockhoff won bronze at the snowboard cross World Cup in Cervinia, Italy, making it back-to-back podiums in a strong start to the season. Teammate Cam Bolton also had a season best fourth place performance.
In a close race, Brokhoff finished just behind Italian Michela Moioli with Faye Gulini of the USA in second, with Brockhoff now sitting in third place on the world rankings heading into the Christmas competition break.
Find out more here.
Alex Ferlazzo Locks in Quota in Luge World Cup
Olympic luger Alex Ferlazzo was back on track in Innsbruck Austria at the Luge World Cup event.
Unable to compete in the past few World Cup events, Ferlazzo laid down a 50.111 in his first run to sit 25th, before improving with a 50.468 to finish in 23rd overall, 1.374 behind event winner Johannes Ludwig of Germany.
The result locks in a Beijing 2022 quota for Australia, with the World Cup season set to continue in January.
Guseli and Coady Impress at Halfpipe Dew Tour
The halfpipe Dew Tour event saw some of the best superpipe and slopestyle snowboarders and skiers in the world descend on Copper Mountain, Colorado.
16-year-old Guseli finished sixth in a star-studded snowboard halfpipe field, with his 83.00 in the final seeing him beat out triple Olympic champion Shaun White who finished in seventh. After qualifying for the final in ninth, Guseli improved to sixth, with Japan’s Yuto Totsuka and Ruka Hirano, winning gold and bronze with American Taylor Gold taking silver.
21-year-old snowboarder Tess Coady finished eighth in the women’s snowboard slopestyle, scoring 48.75 in the event won by Kiwin Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in 97.75 ahead of Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi and Japan’s Kokomo Murase.
Ski Cross
The Ski Cross World Cup season continued in Arosa, Switzerland.
Sami Kennedy-Sim was best placed of the Australian contingent at Arosa, finishing 19th, with Robbie Morrison and Doug Crawford finishing 58th and 59th respectively on the men’s side.
The skiers will take a break from competing, with the next World Cup event in Canada in January.
Alpine Athletes In Action
Aussie alpine skiers and snowboarders were in action on European slopes, with respective World Cups in Val d’Isere, France for the skiers and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy for the snowboarders.
At Val d’Isere, Greta Small finished 46th in the skiing super G event and 41st in the downhill.
Snowboarder Harvey Edmandson finished 57th in the men’s parallel giant slalom, with Millie Bongiorno 45th.
Cross Country Contingent Competing in Germany and Australia
Dual Olympian Phillip Bellingham teamed up with Seve de Campo in the Men’s Team Sprint event at the Dresden World Cup in Germany, with the duo part of the lead pack all the way through their semi-final, to place 14th in their semi and 26th overall - only 15 seconds behind the winners over 14 minutes.
The pair also competed in the individual Sprint event with Bellingham finishing 74th and de Campo 80th.
The rest of the Cross Country Team were competing at the OPA Continental Cup in St Ulrich, Austria, with a number of Aussies had stand out results, including Aimee Watson placing 18th in the Women’s 10km Classic and Casey Wright 20th in the Women’s 15km Freestyle Mass Start.
Find out more here.
Narracott 23rd in Altenberg
Jackie Narracott flew the Australian flag at the World Cup event in Altenberg, Germany, finishing in 23rd with her qualifying run of 1.01.72.
While wanting more from her performance, Narracott said she is viewing each race as building blocks towards the ultimate goal in Beijing.
The Skeleton World Cup will continue on New Years Eve in Latvia.
