Kingsbury, Julien Viel soar to dual moguls World Cup silver, bronze for Canada
Kingsbury widens lead atop World Cup standings to 68 points over Sweden's Wallberg
A familiar Canadian athlete and his teammate, a fresh face on the dual moguls World Cup circuit, reached the medal podium on Saturday in Valmalenco, Italy.
Two-time Olympic medallist Mikaël Kingsbury finished second to Japan's Ikuma Horishima in the men's final while Julien Viel captured his first-ever World Cup medal when he defeated American Dylan Walczyk for bronze in the small final.
Kingsbury's achievement came one week after the native of Deux-Montagnes, Que., won his 78th career World Cup gold medal at an event in Park City, Utah.
"I'm really happy with my day, even though I've been having trouble with this course since the first day of training," said Kingsbury. "This type of course doesn't bring out the best of me as a skier. But my competitive side allowed me to go all the way, and the final race was close. I'm very happy to have finished in second place."
The 30-year-old Kingsbury also surpassed 800 points in the overall moguls standings with 802, having clinched the top spot over Horishima (578 points).
"I increased my lead a bit for the [Crystal Globe] in duals, and I think I'm in a good position to win it. I'll be able to focus on that after the world championships, and I'll take time to train for it when I'm home for a few weeks," said Kingsbury.
WATCH | Kingsbury claims silver medal in Valmalenco, Italy:
Viel's previous best finish in dual moguls on the World Cup stage was 11th on Jan. 28, earned on home snow in Val Saint-Come, Que.
The 21-year-old from Levis, Que., also cracked the top 10 on Feb. 2 in the moguls event with a ninth-place finish at Deer Valley in Park City and sits 10th in the World Cup standings.
"My objective today was to complete my races with minimal errors, and just to have a good time. That was my main goal, and it paid off," said Viel, who earlier lost to Kingsbury in the semifinal.
"This was the second time I raced Mikaël in my career. He's the best in the world, so my aim was to race as well as I could, and hope for the best before the last run of the day. It was awesome to be on the podium with him afterwards."
WATCH | Viel wins 1st World Cup medal:
Elliot Vaillancourt, who finished 14th in Italy, remains the No. 2 Canadian with 215 points with Viel two behind in 13th.
Gabriel Dufresne (15th) and Brenden Kelly (30th) rounded out the Canadian men's results on Saturday.
In the women's competition, Saskatoon's Maïa Schwinghammer was the top Canadian in 12th, followed by Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert of Sainte-Adèle, Que. (19th) and Aurora, Ont., native Berkley Brown (23rd).
WATCH | Full event coverage of dual moguls from Italy:
Perrine Laffont of France won the event, while American Elizabeth Lemley and Japan's Anri Kawamura won silver and bronze, respectively.
Laffont leads the women's overall moguls World Cup standings with 750 points, with Schwinghammer top Canadian in 10th.
The World Cup moguls season concludes March 17-20 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
With files from The Canadian Press
