Moguls: Kearney seals 14th consecutive World Cup win in Deer Valley, McPhie second

By Published On: February 5th, 2012Comments Off on Moguls: Kearney seals 14th consecutive World Cup win in Deer Valley, McPhie second

American moguls skier Hannah Kearney canceled her late night training session at the Center of Excellence tonight (Feb. 4) , giving herself a well-earned night of celebration after hauling in her 14th consecutive World Cup win in a dual moguls contest under the lights and in front of a capacity crowd at Deer Valley, Utah.

“Dual moguls can be more satisfying just because you have to ski more runs,” said Kearney as she tried to catch her breath after skiing five competitions runs tonight. “Especially today, when everyone skied well against me and it’s just a long day when you have back-to-back competitions.”

The home snow was also good to American Heather McPhie who earned her second medal of the weekend (she was third in Thursday’s singles contest) in third place. Canadian Justine Duford-Lapointe (third on Thursday) also made a return trip to the podium between the U.S. teammates in second place after succumbing to Kearney in the women’s final dual.

“I really want to beat Hannah, so I like every experience I have to dual her and just keep getting better and faster against her. I’m a happy camper,” said McPhie who on Wednesday became the first ever moguls skier to sign a headgear sponsorship with RedBull. “It was a really good time out there tonight. I feel like I’m finally skiing with that fire that I had that Olympic year. Last year I was still working on my new tricks and this year throwing that D-spin in every event, even duals, has been so exciting.” 

McPhie grabbed her third podium of the season by beating Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galsheva in the small final after losing to Kearney in the all-American semi final.

“I have never won duals on this course in my career, today feels great!” said Kearney. “I think that in duals, you often assume that whoever crossed the line first took it, but turns are still 50 percent. She (Heather McPhie) has been pushing me all year. We’ve been so tight in times. I pushed myself but still stayed clean and that’s what won it for me tonight.”

Americans Eliza Outtrim, KC Oakley, and Mikaela Matthews cracked the top-ten in fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively. 

Kearney’s impressive streak began last season. She has won seven of this season’s World Cup events and holds a commanding lead on both the overall freestyle and moguls standings. 

For the first time of the season, the men’s win went to somebody other than Canadian Mikael Kingsbury. Kingsbury, winner of the previous six World Cup contests this season fell behind Russian Sergey Volkov in the final. It was Volkov’s first career World Cup win. Volkov’s older brother Andrey Volkov rounded out the podium in third place, beating American Jeremy Cota, who landed fourth, in the small final. Fellow U.S. skier Patrick Deneen had a top-ten result in sixth. 

The moguls World Cup tour now shifts to Beida Lake, China for competition Feb 11-12.

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About the Author: Eric Williams