Laffont and Kingsbury awarded with moguls and freestyle globes
Mar 14, 2020·Freestyle
With the ongoing Novel Coranvirus pandemic causing cancellation of the majority of sporting events all around the World, the final event of the 2019/20 moguls World Cup season was no exception, as the event staged to go down this weekend in Idre Fjall (SWE) was cancelled on Thursday for an unexpected ending to the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup season under unfortunate circumstances.
Nevertheless, the 2019/20 season was still a hugely successful one, with numerous supreme events put on by committed and motivated organisers at venues both established and brand new, and thrilling single and dual moguls battles performed by the world’s best freestyle skiers at every stop.
A total of 10 World Cup events out of 13 planned for the 2019/20 season were completed successfully, visiting nine different locations in eight countries across three continents. And while the two final competitions of the 2019/20 moguls campaign were called off due to the uprising concerns over the outbreak of COVID-19, the organisers at the new moguls World Cup venue in Idre Fall held the final award ceremony on Friday. The World Cup’s biggest honours in the form of the FIS crystal globes were handed over to the season’s top athletes, along with the Nations Cup trophy and the “Rookie of the Year” awards.
In the women’s battle for the globe it was Perrine Laffont of France who claimed her third consecutive moguls World Cup title, while celebrating one of the most dominant campaigns in the recent history. The 21-year-old Laffont scored eight victories and one third place finish while missing the podium only once in 2019/20. In fact, Laffont secured her World Cup title hat-trick in Almaty (KAZ), while there were fully three more competitions left in the season. Laffont finished with 896 points in the final moguls World Cup ranking, more than 300 points ahead of second overall Jakara Anthony of Australia.
Finishing in the second place with 564 points, Anthony stepped it up from her third overall finish last season, finishing in top-3 for the second straight year. Anthony ended the season with a total of four World Cup podiums in 2019/20.
Following her two runner-up World Cup placements in 2018 and 2019, USA’s Jaelin Kauf rounded out the women’s podium in third place with 470 points, finishing the campaign also with four top-3 spots, including one victory in Almaty.
For the second straight year, Laffont also came out on top of the overall freestyle World Cup ranking, finishing ahead of the ski cross racers Sandra Naeslund of Sweden and Fanny Smith of Switzerland, who landed in second and third place overall, respectively. On the scale of 100, Laffont recorded a high-score of 89.60 points, with Naeslund at 77.73 and Smith at 72.36 points.
In Idre Fjall, Laffont was thus awarded with the small and big crystal globe for winning both moguls and the overall freestyle World Cup classification.
Over on the men’s side no one else but the king of moguls Mikael Kingsbury of Canada reached for both his ninth consecutive moguls as well as overall FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup crystal globe, getting an inch closer to Conny Kissling’s record of 10 Freestyle overall titles. Kingsbury won seven out of ten World Cup competitions in 2019/20 and finished the season far ahead of his competitors with 940 points, proving yet once again that he’s the most dominant skier on the entire FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup tour.
Second place on tour in 2019/20 went to the only men who managed to beat Kingsbury this season - Ikuma Horishima of Japan. Horishima recored three victories in the season, to go along his total of six top-3 finishes for a final score of 639 points. It was his third time on the moguls World Cup final podium in his career.
France’s Benjamin Cavet came behind Horishima in third place, gathering 531 points and four podiums in 2019/20.
In the overall freestyle World Cup ranking Kingsbury finished with 94.00 points, with the halfpipe duo of Canada’s Noah Bowman and USA’s Aaron Blunck finishing in second and third, with 73.00 and 72.00 points, respectively.
In an emotional moment to wrap up the 2019/20 season in Sweden it was Canada’s Brayden Kuroda, who passed away tragically last month, awarded with the men’s “Rookie of the Year” honour. Meanwhile, Anri Kawamura of Japan took the “Rookie of the Year” title on the women’s side of things. Canada yet once again topped both the moguls and overall freestyle Nations Cups standing.
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Photos: ALL COMPETITIONS / AWARDS
