Canada's Kingsbury ends dual moguls season with silver

The World Cup freestyle ski season ended Sunday much like it began — with Canadian Mikael Kingsbury on the podium.

The 19-year-old from Deux-Montagnes, Que., was second in the season-ending World Cup men's dual moguls event. He ended the year registering medals in all 13 competitions.

Kingsbury finished the season as the overall World Cup champion as well as atop the moguls standings as well, surprising even himself.

"I never thought I would've been able to do this at 19 years old," he said. "But this season I've skied great, I've been consistent every race and I think that was the key for me.

"In training, I think on every course I found a way to ski and the way I was skiing was the way to be on the podium so I was focused on those things. In competition, I always did even better than in training."

American Patrick Deneen won the event with Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., finishing third after losing to Kingsbury in the semifinals.

"A couple times this season I had fourth- and fifth-place finishes but to finish on the podium is very nice," Gagnon said. "It was a really good year, I was able to make every final and had good results every competition.

"It was an awesome year."

Gagnon defeated Eddie Hicks of Langley, B.C., for the bronze medal. He secured his first career World Cup podium finish when Hicks fell on the top portion of the course.

Still, Hicks finished fourth to register his best showing of the season. Cedric Rochon of St. Sauveur, Que., was seventh, two spots ahead of Philippe Marquis of Quebec City.

1st victory

Montreal's Justine Dufour-Lapointe, 17, won the women's competition for her first victory of the season. Japan's Miki Ito was second, with Dufour-Lapointe's sister Chloe taking third.

It marked the first time in World Cup history that two sisters shared the podium.

"It was incredible to share the podium with Chloe," Justine Dufour-Lapointe said. "We all want to do our best but doing it at the same time doesn't always happen.

"We have a lot of fun in duals and I was really happy to share that with my sister."

Chloe Dufour-Lapointe echoed those sentiments.

"It was pretty cool," she said. "We were looking forward to this all year long and finally was able to do it this week with Justine and it was awesome."

The Canadian team finished the season atop the Nation's Cup standings for a seventh straight year. Canada accumulated 6,886 points to finish ahead of the U.S., which had 5,832.

"That was important for our team," Kingsbury said. "We're a close team, we always push each other and we pushed hard to get it.

"It's awesome for the team and am glad to be a part of it."