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Freestyle teams wins eight medals

Pemberton's Yuki Tsubota placed second in windy women's slopestyle at Dew Tour
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DEW-GOODERS

The Canadian Freestyle Ski Team dominated last season and for eight of the last nine years they've won the Nations Cup. If the results from this weekend are any indication, Canada's not ready to give up the top spot anytime soon.

At the Dew Cup season opener in Breckenridge, Colorado, the ski-halfpipe team pulled in three medals. Justin Dorey won the event while teammate Mike Riddle picked up the bronze medal behind Byron Wells of New Zealand; Rosalind Groenewoud placed third in the women's event behind Brita Sigourney and Maddie Bowman of the U.S. Keltie Hansen was sixth for Canada.

Dorey didn't get to enjoy his victory in style after he crashed in his second run and dislocated his shoulder. He credited the win to skiing conservatively, which is a new concept for him.

"I usually go for broke every run," he said. "Sometimes it works but it's a gamble. I knew I needed a podium for the Olympic qualifying so I was a little more reserved. That helped me focus."

Riddle was excited to have a good result early, earning points for Canada and himself to ski in the first ski halfpipe ever held at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

"This is the most important event for us so far as what the results mean," said Riddle, who is the defending World Champion. "It's huge to get a podium, so I'm unbelievably excited. Now I hope to build on it."

Groenewoud, the defending women's champion, said the previous week of training at Copper Mountain helped the skiers prepare.

"It has a similar altitude, similar weather patterns (to Breckenridge)," she said. "Training there went very well. Now it's nice to start with a podium. It's our first qualifying event for the Olympics, so it's a great way to start the whole qualifying season."

It's unknown how Dorey's shoulder injury will affect the rest of his season, if at all. Doctors will continue to monitor him, and as of Monday he was still planning to keep to the same training and contest schedule.

In the slopestyle event, Canada's Kaya Turski kept her winning streak alive from last season with a score of 87.25, which no other competitor came close to. Pemberton's Yuki Tsubota posted the next-highest score, a 72.25, to pick up the silver medal, while Anna Segal of Australia won third with a 56.75. Dara Howell was fifth.

The low scores were the result of the challenging conditions.

"It was really, really windy and gusty," said Turski. "It was really sketchy out there. I'm just glad I made it down the course. I just tried to keep it together and I know everyone kind of struggled with the speed.

"I did what I planned to do on my run. It wasn't my best run, but I think considering the weather I did really well and I'm pleased with my skiing. It's a really good way to start the season, especially being an Olympic qualifier and rolling into X Games."

For Tsubota, she credits her decision to knock half a rotation off her last jump with her medal.

"If I'd done the 540, I probably would have exploded," said the 19-year-old alumni of the Whistler Blackcomb Freestyle Club. "I'm just, like, blown away. Coming into the competition as an alternate and then coming second was really big for me.

"I guess this means there's a chance for me to make the Olympics. It feels so much closer now. Before this comp I was kind of stressing but it's really realistic for me now. I'm happy and I'm so grateful for all my support from home, I couldn't be here without them."

On the men's side, top spot on the podium went to Russ Henshaw of Australia, followed by Andreas Hatveit of Norway and Henrik Harlaut of Sweden. JF Houle and Alex Bellemare struggled with the weather and placed eighth and 11th respectively.

Mogul skiers crowd finals in Finland

Meanwhile, the moguls team kicked off its season with a dual moguls competition at Ruka, Finland. The final came down to two Canadians on the men's side, with 2012 overall World Cup champion Mikael Kingsbury, 20, taking on Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau in a head-to-head battle. With cold and windy conditions, Kingsbury edged his teammate to take the gold medal.

It was very nearly a podium sweep with Jeremy Cota of the U.S. battling Marc-Antoine Gagnon in the small final, and Cota winning that battle to place third.

Cedric Rochon was seventh for Canada, followed by Simon Pouliot-Cavanagh in eighth.

"I knew there was a lot of pressure in my dual against Alex," said Kingsbury, "I knew the media would talk quite a bit about this dual for a long time after it. So, I tried to relax and have fun at the top of the course, and even though Alex is my teammate I tried to treat him the same way I would any other competitor.

"I always seem to go against Canadians, so I have a lot of practice treating them like anybody else when I'm in the gate."

Kingsbury also said he has the best team in the world. "They all congratulated me at the bottom of the course and I'll be for them for sure when they win."

Bildoeau, who took off most of last season to train and prepare for this World Championship and Olympic qualification year, was happy with his return to the World Cup circuit.

"It's always challenging to go against (Kingsbury), he's one of the best in the world and I'm happy for him today, he skied really well," he said.

"It was as good comeback for me. I'm not extremely happy about my skiing, there's still room for improvement and I did make a mistake in the middle section of my final run, but it was a good day."

In the women's event it came down to American Heather McPhie and Canada's Justine Dufour-Lapointe. McPhie took the gold while Dufour-Lapointe was happy to be on the podium after a close battle with Japanese skier Aiko Uemura in the semi-finals.

"I was a bit tired (in the final against McPhie) and I put my eyes down a bit and made a mistake," she said.

Meanwhile Uemura took the bronze medal after beating Nikola Sudova of Czech Republic in the small final.

NorAm champion Andi Naude had a huge debut on the World Cup with a fifth place finish for Canada, while Whistler's Chelsea Henitiuk was a solid eighth and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe placed ninth. The third Dufour-Lapointe sister, Maxime, was 14th and Audrey Robichaud 16th.

The next dual mogul competition is on Dec. 22 in Kreischberg, Austria.