Freestyle skiing-China’s Gu claims second straight halfpipe gold in Calgary

January 2, 2022

(Reuters) – China’s Eileen Gu recovered from a disappointing first run to claim her second victory in three days in the halfpipe competition at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in Calgary, Canada.

Gu recorded 92.80 points to beat local favourite Rachael Karker (89.40) and American Hanna Faulhaber (88.60) on Saturday to secure her third win in three halfpipe competitions so far this season.

“I’m super, super happy,” said the 18-year-old, who is tipped to win gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics from Feb. 4-20.

“I’ve been saying that the biggest thing for me is getting competition experience, especially with people like Rachael (Karker) or Cassie (Sharpe) in this field, who I look up to so much.

“So, to just be in this field and do my best is what I always strive for.”

With the final halfpipe event scheduled to take place at Mammoth Mountain in California next week, Gu leads the overall standings on 300 points, 80 ahead of Karker in second and Faulhaber in third on 185 points.

In the men’s competition, Canada’s Brendan Mackay scored 93.40 points to win a second consecutive World Cup event in his hometown ahead of American Alex Ferreira (90.40), while Noah Bowman, also from Calgary, finished in third place with 88 points.

(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru: Editing by Neil Fullick)