For the first time in ten events alongside the Moguls World Cup, Mikaël Kingsbury did not get on the podium. Saturday evening at the Deer Valley stage, in Utah, the Quebecer, victorious solo at the same place on Thursday evening, was surprised by the Frenchman Benjamin Cavet, 19 points against 16, in the quarter-final and ended his day in sixth rank.
Cavet continued his journey to the final where he faced the Japanese Ikuma Horishima who won his fourth victory of the season. Bronze went to the American Dylan Marcellini, who defeated his compatriot Nick Page.
The last time that the worker from Deux-Montagnes was not on a podium in this specialty was at the Alpe d’Huez stage, in France, in December 2022, when he was ranked 22e. Since that date, the 31-year-old athlete has won seven times, in addition to winning a silver and a bronze medal.
Elliot Vaillancourt was shown the exit by the Swede Rasmus Stegfeldt in the round of 16. Julien Viel suffered the same fate in this round against the Australian Cooper Woods. Vaillancourt and Viel respectively finished in the 10e and 11e ranks.
As for Gabriel Dufresne, he lost against the Swiss Enea Buzzi in the round of 32 and ranked 39e.
In the general classification of the specialty, Kingsbury (500 points) retains the yellow jersey of leader ahead of Horishima (372 points). Overall for the two moguls disciplines, Kingsbury (1000) is also ahead of the Japanese (902) with three more competitions to go before the end of the season.
The only Quebec representative in the women’s draw, Lauriane Desmarais-Gilbert did not complete her descent in the round of 16 where she faced the American Lulu Shaffer.
The other Canadian entered, Maia Schwinghammer, placed fifth.
Australian Jakarta Anthony won gold ahead of American Jaelin Kauf.