With his second gold in as many weeks 30-year-old aerialist Nicolas Fontaine is well on his way to winning an unprecedented fifth World Championship medal.
"It’s a really good feeling when you have the lead (after the first round," said Fontaine after winning a World Cup event last weekend at Mont Tremblant. "You don’t have to catch up and everyone’s trying to catch you."
With the World Championships taking place this weekend in Whistler, Fontaine said he was glad to be in championship form. "I’m really pleased to get the momentum at this time of the year."
Second and third place belonged to Dmitri Dashinski and Alexei Grichin of Belarus.
Jeff Bean of Ottawa finished sixth while national development squad jumper Ryan Blais ended his day in 12th. David Belhumer, Andy Capicik and Steve Omischl just missed the cutoff, finishing 13 th , 14 th , and 15 th .
The Canadian women narrowly missed the podium, with Veronika Bauer finishing fourth. The points were good enough to move her into second in the overall standings behind Aussie Jacqui Cooper.
Diedra Dionne landed in sixth place while Karen MacDonald finished a career-best ninth.
Alla Tsuper of Belarus won the competition, followed by Nannan Xu of China and Hilde Synnove Lid of Norway.
The World Championship aerials finals will be held at the jump site behind the Glacier Lodge on Jan. 20.
