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Ashton takes freeskiing title

Johnny lays down the Law, finishes third Another year, another International Freeskiers Association (IFSA) World Tour title for a Whistler skier.

Johnny lays down the Law, finishes third

Another year, another International Freeskiers Association (IFSA) World Tour title for a Whistler skier.

Last weekend, the top big mountain skiers descended on Les Arcs, France for the third and final stop of the IFSA World Tour, which kicked off in Whistler in January.

Whistler’s Jenn Ashton pulled out a third place finish in the Les Arcs event, behind Andrea Binning of Austria and Marte-Lise Karlsen of Norway. The 39 points she earned – combined with the 50 points earned while taking her third Canadian title and 15 points from finishing ninth in the U.S. Freeskiing Championships at Snowbird – gave her 104 points, and her second consecutive World Tour title.

The runner up for the title, with 89 points, was Ingrid Backstrom of the U.S., who missed the final event. Binning finished third overall with 80 points, also missing one of the tour events.

Although Whistler locals have dominated the men’s World Tour standings for the past four seasons, injuries claimed two-time tour winner Hugo Harrison, and Pierre-Yves Lebalanc, second overall last year, missed two out of three events this season.

A pair of French skiers took the top two spots this year. Manuel Gaidet of Courchevel won the Whistler and Les Arcs events, and finished 12 th at Snowbird to claim the overall title with 106 points. Guerlain Chicherit of Tignes was second in Whistler, seventh at Snowbird and third at Les Arcs to finish one point back with 105 total.

Whistler’s own Johnny Law finished third overall after finishing 11 th in Whistler, winning Snowbird, and finishing second at Les Arcs. He earned 103 points in total.

Locals Leif Zapf-Gilje and Pierre-Yves Leblanc finished seventh and eighth, Robin Courcelles was 19 th , and Mike Stevenson 13 th .