Canada's Marquis nabs 1st freestyle World Cup win

Canadian Philippe Marquis has his first career World Cup freestyle skiing victory in Are, Sweden.

The Quebec City skier finished first in a men's moguls event Friday ahead of teammate Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que. And in the women's competition, Montreal's Chloe Dufour-Lapointe captured a silver medal.

Predictably, Marquis was ecstatic with his result.

"I couldn't be happier," he said. "I'm not sure it has sunk in just yet."

The 21-year-old Marquis won the men's event with 24.79 points. Kingsbury, 19, was second 24.48, finishing ahead of Japan's Sho Endo (24.23).

The gold medal completes Marquis' collection this year, having registered a silver and bronze earlier in the season. He said those two previous finishes proved to him he was capable of competing on the World Cup circuit.

"The relief came from my first couple of podiums this season," he said. "That was the biggest question mark I had in my head.

"You always ask if you have what it takes to climb up on that podium and make the statement that, 'Hey, I'm Philippe Marquis, I'm a contender, watch out.'

"The first win is, 'Wow, I can win also.' That's a bonus."  

Kingsbury came into the competition having already clinched the overall title but said that hasn't hampered his motivation.

"I'm just trying to get as many podiums, as many wins as I can," said Kingsbury. "I'm just enjoying that the season is near the end because for sure it's hard on the body and it has been a long year and a lot of travel.

"It's fun to compete every day."

And Kingsbury tipped his cap to Marquis.

"It's awesome to share the podium with him," Kingsbury said. "He skied well and got me in the last run.

"But [Saturday] is a new day as well."

The dual moguls will be run Saturday and Marquis understands Kingsbury will be gunning for him.

"Yeah, he's already told me that," Marquis said with a chuckle. "Fair enough, Mikael is a winner and you can see he'll turn the switch on again [Saturday].

"It's up to me to be ready and prepared for him. But I'll be there waiting for the challenge."

Eddie Hicks of Langely, B.C., was eighth with 24.19.

American Hannah Kearney won the women's event with 25.04 points, her 10th victory of the season. Dufour-Lapointe was second with 23.53 while Japan's Arisa Murata was third with 23.37.

Dufour-Lapointe's sister, Maxime, was 10th with 22.58 points.  

"I'm pretty happy about it," Chloe DuFour-Lapointe said of her second-place finish. "I skied well.

"For this competition I was looking to have fun every run that I had while concentrating on the job I had to do. Like I said, I'm pretty happy."