Mikael Kingsbury the defending World Cup champion from Deux Montagnes, Que., scored 23.41 points to secure his sixth World Cup freestyle title this season on Saturday in Inawashiro, Japan. (file photo)Chris Bolin/The Canadian Press
Mikael Kingsbury and Audrey Robichaud led a four-medal performance for Canada in difficult conditions at a World Cup freestyle moguls event Saturday.
Kingsbury, the defending World Cup champion from Deux Montagnes, Que., scored 23.41 points to secure his sixth title this season.
"I had a difficult time in the finals run, actually I didn't ski the run I wanted to ski but I fought and made it into the super finals," he said. "It was very slick so you really had to control your speed, I learned from my finals run and managed to put it together for a clutch performance in the end, so I'm super stoked."
Bradley Wilson of the United States was second, followed by Alex Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que., in third.
Bilodeau topped the standings after an excellent performance in the first finals round was disappointed with his third-place showing.
"I landed a bit too heavy on the top air and I was a bit too fast which made me make some little mistakes," he said, adding that the challenge was keeping speed in check because of the slick course. "I think (the Canadian team is) very strong technically and that's what made the difference for us."
After eight of 12 events, Kingsbury leads the standings with 705 points, followed by Bilodeau (513) and Patrick Deneen (443) of the U.S.
Quebec City's Robichaud won her first title of the season in the women's event, scoring 20.62 points to finish ahead of Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic and Montreal's Chloe Dufour-Lapointe.
"I really didn't do my best run for the super final and I was actually pretty disappointed in myself, especially after I had such a great run in the finals," Robichaud said. "When I got to the bottom and saw the scores I thought they had made a mistake, but I guess all the other girls made some mistakes too — the course was pretty difficult and tricky on the top section so it was really easy to make mistakes."
Justine Dufour-Lapointe, also of Montreal, who leads the mogul standings with 478 points, was fourth.