Canadian Kingsbury wins season-opening moguls event

Now that Canadian Mikael Kingsbury has started the World Cup season with the No. 1 bib, he intends to keep it.

The freestyle skier from Oka, Que., claimed the season-opening moguls competition Saturday in Ruka, Finland by scoring 25.00 points. He finished ahead of American Sho Kashima and France's Anthony Benna.

"I'll try to keep the yellow bib as long as I can and maybe at the end of the year I'll have the globe," said Kingsbury. "It's my goal."

The 19-year-old finished third overall on the World Cup circuit last season after recording eight podiums. On Saturday, he held control from start to finish.

"I'm really happy with my skiing because I was able to keep the leading spot troughout the competition," said Kingsbury. "I'm also excited to have the World Cup leader bib on me for the first time."

Philippe Marquis of Quebec City finished fifth, Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., was 11th, Cedric Rochon of Saint-Sauveur, Que., was 15th and Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., was 23rd.

Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh of L'Ancienne-Lorette, Que., and Eddie Hicks of Langley, B.C., did not finish.

In the women's competition, American Hannah Kearney took gold ahead of teammate Eliza Outtrim and Nikola Sudova of the Czech Rebublic.

Montreal's Chloe Dufour-Lapointe was the top Canadian in seventh.

"I'm happy with that," she said. "Everyone was anxious with it being the first event of the season."

Maxime Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal was seventh, Edmonton's Chelsea Henitiuk finished 13th, Beatrice Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que., was 20th and Justine Durour-Lapointe of Montreal was 31st.