Skiing
Eileen Gu claims freeski halfpipe victory at Copper Mountain
Eileen Gu scored a FIS World Cup freeski halfpipe win in the USA as Nico Porteous, Eva Samková, Queralt Castellet and Fanny Smith all bagged podium places – get the round-up here.
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Eileen Gu maintained her excellent start to the 2021/2022 FIS World Cup season with a freeski halfpipe win at Copper Mountain, USA.
Nico Porteous, Eva Samková, Queralt Castellet and Fanny Smith also earned podium places in their own events – keep reading to get the lowdown on everything that happened this weekend.
Gu, 18, came into the Copper Mountain FIS World Cup stop fresh from a Big Air victory at Steamboat Springs in Colorado last weekend, and she did just enough to edge out Canadian Rachael Karker by half a point, with Estonian Kelly Sildaru in third.
The result is Gu's second victory of the season, putting her level with Switzerland's Sarah Hoefflin at the top of the FIS World Cup overall park and pipe standings heading into the next halfpipe stop in Calgary, Canada, on December 30.
In Friday's men's freeski halfpipe event, Nico Porteous of New Zealand just missed out on victory when he banked a 92.25 score compared to winner American Alex Ferreira's 93.50 with Canadian Brendan Mackay in third.
“I’m really happy with the way I skied,” said Porteous of his three runs on the the 6.7m-high superpipe. “I gave it my all. I’ve never done a full run of doubles before, so I was happy with that."
Queralt Castellet also earned a place on the podium after a strong showing in the women's halfpipe event that secured her third place behind behind Xuetong Cai of China and Japan's Sina Tomita.
Meanwhile, in Saturday's Mixed Snowboard Cross Team event at Montafon, in Austria, Eva Samková helped the Czech Republic to second place alongside Jan Kubicik.
The following day saw Fanny Smith claim second place in the women's ski cross event at Val Thorens, in Switzerland. The Swiss freestyle skier narrowly lost out to Sandra Naeslund and lies 114 points behind the Swede in the overall standings.
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