Canadian ski cross racers Kelsey Serwa and Chris Del Bosco proved to be snow warriors today (Feb. 4), battling through four rounds of tough competition to become World Champions at Deer Valley, Utah. Fellow Canadian Julia Murray also landed on the podium with the silver medal.

Day 3 of the FIS Freestyle World Championships saw a shift in weather as the sunny skies and cold temperatures of the previous two days was pushed out by cloud cover and warm temps.

Del Bosco, 2010 X Games gold medalist, made a huge pass in the middle of the course during the men's final, overtaking the Czech Republic's Tomas Kraus and hanging on for the win. Finn Jouni Pellinen took the silver medal ahead of current World Cup overall leader and defending World Champion, Austrian Andreas Matt with the bronze.

Del Bosco finally got the "big event" monkey off his back after finishing fourth at the Vancouver Games and the 2009  World Championships. "I was wondering about these big event, if I could get it done," said Del Bosco, a Vail, Colo. native who represents his father's home country of Canada. "It feels great." 

It was Pellinen's first podium of any kind. "This is awesome. I've been qualifying really good this year but never made the big final," he said. "Today I pulled out my pride and showed these guys that I can make it, took home the medal and I'm so proud."

John Teller, 2011 X Games gold medalist and the lone American to qualify for this week’s final, was eliminated in his semifinal round but dominated the small final to secure a fifth-place finish.

"I had some goals coming into this season. They were pretty high goals and I’d say I’ve achieved them," said Teller, who became the first American to win a World Cup last month.

"The course was good," said American Skicross Association's Casey Puckett, who came out of retirement last week to place third in ski cross at Winter X Games 15. "There was room to pass and Teller made a lot of passes today."

Tahoe, Calif. native and Jamaica representative, Errol Kerr was eliminated in his first round run.

Serwa, who finished fifth at both the Vancouver Games and the 2009 World Champs, backed up the X Games gold medal she won last weekend by winning all but one of her four heats today. Sweden’s Anna Holmlund rounded out the podium with the bronze.

“I had two goals coming into this season, one was to win X Games and next was to win World Championships, so I’m pretty happy right now to achieve both those,” said Serwa, who after a spectacular crash across the X Games finish line last weekend was only able to get out of bed two days ago.”I’ve been working a lot with my physio and massage therapist for four hours a day just to get me moving normally. When we started racing the adrenaline was there and I could barley feel it.”

“Today was definitely exciting for me just because I’ve been working through this knee thing all year and then I wrecks again last week at X Games,” said Murray, who has battled knee problems over the last year.”I’m just super psyched about being on the podium with Kelsy today.”

Seven-time World Cup champion and four-time X Games gold medalist, France’s Ophelie David was eliminated in a four-woman crash during her quarter final run.

Women's defending Worlds gold medalist, Canadian Olympic gold medalist Ashleigh McIvor was lost for the season when she injured her knee while training for last week's X Games.

No American women raced today.

Women's Results

Men's Results