Vaillancourt skis to moguls silver on home snow in Val Saint-Côme
Team Canada’s Elliot Vaillancourt captured the silver medal on Friday night at the FIS Freestyle World Cup moguls event in Val Saint-Côme, Quebec, securing the lone Canadian hardware not too far from his hometown of Drummondville, Quebec.
The 24-year-old grabbed second place with 82.37 points, only trailing Sweden’s Walter Wallberg, who put up a final score of 84.92. Meanwhile, Filip Gravenfors, also of Sweden, rounded off the podium with a 77.10.
Louis-David Chalifoux, who grew up skiing at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, finished as the second-best Canadian in seventh place, while Gabriel Dufresne, 27, finished 12th.
Despite having won 18 times on Canadian snow, Mikaël Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Quebec, couldn’t find his way onto the podium on Friday night, finishing the event in 13th place while looking ahead to another opportunity under the lights on Saturday in dual moguls.
In the women’s event, Berkley Brown of Aurora, Ontario, finished as the top Canadian in eighth place, while Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert, 26, finished 12th. Maia Schwinghammer of Saskatoon also qualified for the final, finishing 15th.
The competitions continue through Saturday with the dual moguls events as Canadians look for more hardware, looking to vault themselves up the overall World Cup standings as the season enters its second half.