Freestyle worlds: Canada's Richards wins gold

By Published On: March 9th, 2007Comments Off on Freestyle worlds: Canada's Richards wins gold

Canada’s Kristi Richards held off teammate Jennifer Heil to win gold in the women’s moguls event on Friday at the 2007 Freestyle World Championships in Italy.
CANADA'S KRISTI RICHARDS
held off teammate Jennifer Heil to win gold in the women’s moguls event on Friday at the 2007 Freestyle World Championships in Italy.
    Richards, with two wins in her World Cup career, including a dual moguls victory this season at Deer Valley, scored 25.37 points to Heil’s 25.25. Heil was the top scorer in qualifying and the last skier down the course under the lights at Madonna di Campiglio. The defending world champion and the reigning Olympic champion, Heil scored slightly better than Richards in turns and speed, but Richards outscored Heil in airs.
    Italy’s Deborah Scanzio, with three second-place finishes in her World Cup career, took the bronze medal.
    Shannon Bahrke, with the fourth-best qualifying score, couldn’t improve on that position in the finals to win the rubber medal and lead the U.S. Ski Team. Shelly Robertson finished sixth and Heather McPhie eighth. Michelle Roark DNFed.
    Bahrke, 2002 Olympic silver medalist, 2003 World Cup champion and duals bronze medalist, felt she was skiing well enough to the make the podium, but she had a little bobble in landing a heli (360-degree vertical rotation) on the top jump and that scuttled her medal chances.
    “My top air ended too quickly. It put me in the back seat,” she explained, “so I kind of ‘wheelied’ out of the top jump. But the rest was good, but the women are skiing at such a high level now and you can’t have that one little mistake.”
    Snow conditions changed from daytime slush to sugar snow with ice underneath, she said. “It was a good course — they did a good job preparing, but it was different,” Bahrke said. “It was tough to get in some good training, but the course shaped up tonight and was good skiing …
    “Usually, I do so good under the lights and these were awesome, and it was fun to be up here, and to end my season on a positive note, but … well, maybe in two years.
    “I thought I could be on the podium that I would be on the podium, because I knew I could pull it all together,” she said.


World Championships freestyle moguls results
Women
Moguls

1. Kristi Richards, Canada, 25.37
2. Jennifer Heil, Canada, 25.25
3. Deborah Scanzio, Italy, 25.12
4. Shannon Bahrke, United States, 24.86
5. Stephanie St. Pierre, Canada, 24.58
6. Shelly Robertson, United States, 24.53
7. Margarita Marbler, Austria, 24.12
8. Heather McPhie, United States, 23.66
9. Nikola Sudova, Czech Republic, 23.57
10. Ingrid Berntsen, Norway, 21.75

Click here for complete results.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh