Canadian freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury claimed a 10th Crystal Globe in men’s single moguls with a gold-medal performance at the World Cup finals in Megeve, France on Friday.
Kingsbury, of Deux-Montagnes, Que., scored 86.27 points and narrowly beat Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, his archrival all season, by 0.04 points.
Sweden’s Walter Wallberg (85.13) claimed bronze.
“I’m really happy with this win,” said Kingsbury in a statement. “We’re in a fight to the finish for the Crystal Globe. It’s been a fierce battle since the beginning of the season. I felt the pressure on my last run and I wanted to leave everything on the course today. I’m really happy. Tomorrow will be a big day, and there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Wallberg won gold in the event at the Beijing Games, while Kingsbury settled for silver and Horishima took home bronze.
Kingsbury completed the eighth and final leg of the World Cup single moguls schedule with a grand total of 672 points in the cumulative standings, 32 ahead of Horishima.
The Canadian won five of the tour’s eight events with Horishima winning the other three.
Kingsbury has 19 career Crystal Globes, a total that he can add to on Saturday if he wins the dual moguls event.
In the women’s competition, Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe finished fifth Friday, with a score of 80.72 points.
The victory went to France’s Perrine Laffont (86.86), who finished first in the overall singles standings with 610 points, one more than Japan’s Anri Kawamura.
Dufour-Lapointe was the top Canadian in the overall standings in 13th with 155 points. Her sister Chloe finished just behind her with 148 points.
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