It was a busy weekend in the Freestyle FIS World Cup with two moguls, one aerials and one ski cross event held as of last Friday.

In the two moguls events in Lake Placid (USA) on Friday and Sunday, Team USA delivered a strong performance on home soil. With a total of five podium places of the twelve possible, it kicked off the traditional North American tour in a great fashion. On Friday as the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup got underway in a snowstorm with gusting winds at Whiteface Mountain, Emiko Torito (USA) won her first World Cup event after also leading the qualification. Teammate Kayla Snyderman was 3rd in the ladies' contest while Deborah Scanzio (ITA), the moguls 2007 Worlds bronze medallist, took 2nd.
Warren Tanner of Canada qualified 14th but laid down a solid final run that edged Olympic and defending World Cup champion Dale Begg-Smith of Australia by six-hundredths of a point. Pat Deneen of the USA filled the podium in a great showing for a rookie.

On Sunday, the ladies' win again went to the USA, this time to Michelle Roark. For Roark, it's the sixth World Cup win of her career - and came two years to the day since she last won, also at Whiteface. Russian Ekaterina Stolyarova, the three-time Junior Worlds medallist in moguls, finished second, her first World Cup podium. Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic took 3rd. In the men's contest, Olympic champion and defending World Cup moguls champion Dale Begg-Smith won with Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada second. Rookie Pat Deneen (USA) picked up his second podium in 48 hours, finishing third again.

Begg-Smith now leads the men's moguls standings over Bilodeau while in the ladies rankings, Roark leads ahead of Margarita Marbler of Austria.

In the season's third aerials event, held in a mild snowstorm on Saturday night, reigning aerials FIS World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper of Australia remained unbeaten after three events this winter. In the ladies' event she beat runner-up China's Xinxin Guo clearly with 2006 Olympic Champion Evelyne Leu of Switzerland in 3rd place. Steve Omischl of Canada won the men's competition to fatten his margin as the men's aerials leader. Anton Kurshnir of Belarus continued the strong performances of the Belarusian team this winter, supported by teammate Dmitri Dashinski in 5th place. Olympic and World champion Xiaopeng Han of China took 3rd.

The third event in the Freestyle FIS World Cup ski cross took place on Sunday in Kreischberg (AUT). In the men's event, Tomas Kraus of the Czech Republic made it three wins in as many World Cup events. Michael Schmid, of Switzerland took second, his third World Cup podium, with Alois Mani, SUI,. Tomas Kraus now leads the World Cup rankings with full 300 points after the
In the ladies' race, Ophelie David (FRA) returned to her winning ways taking the victory. Behind her Karin Huttary of Austria made a comeback to the podium after a serious injury kept her from competing all last season. In the ladies' standings, France's young Meryl Boulangeat, 4th in Kreischberg, continues to lead before teammate David in 2nd and Huttary in 3rd.

The Freestyle FIS World Cup will now head to Mont Gabriel, outside Montreal, Canada, for its next stop during its annual visit to North America.

FIS news
21.01.2008

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