Canadian Roundup: Podium sweeps, historic firsts and plenty of gold
Team Canada athletes kept fans on their feet over the weekend, winning four World Cup events, with two podiums sweeps and historic finishes along the way.
Here’s the latest weekend roundup.
Freestyle Skiing – Moguls
Read: Canadian women sweep podium; Kingsbury still moguls king
Mikael Kinsgsbury kisses his trophy as he celebrates his victory at the moguls World Cup on January 21, 2017 in St-Come, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Canadians had a super Saturday on home snow at the moguls World Cup in Val St-Côme. The Canadian women delighted fans, giving them a podium sweep with Justine Dufour-Lapointe taking gold, Andi Naude clinching silver and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe capturing bronze. On the men’s side Mikaël Kingsbury won the men’s competition, reclaiming the top spot on the overall World Cup leader board in the process.
Cross-Country Skiing
Read: Breakthrough bronze for Canada in cross-country relay
Read: Harvey makes history with back-to-back World Cup wins
Len Valjas, Alex Harvey, Knute Johnsgaard and Devon Kershaw (L-R) celebrate their bronze in men’s relay 4×7.5 km at the World Cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden on Jan. 22, 2017. (Adam Ihse / TT via AP)
This weekend was one of firsts for Cross-Country Canada at the World cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden. In started on Saturday, when Alex Harvey won the 15km race, becoming the first Canadian to win World Cup gold medals on back-to-back weekends. The success continued on Sunday when Harvey, Devon Kershaw, Knute Johnsgaard and Lenny Valjas captured bronze to win the nation’s first distance 4×7.5m relay World Cup medal.
Snowboard – Slopestyle
Read: Parrot leads Canadian slopestyle sweep at LAAX
Another podium sweep occurred this weekend in Switzerland at the LAAX Open. Canadian snowboarders continued to show their dominance in slopestyle with Max Parrot, Mark McMorris and Tyler Nicholson finishing first through third in the men’s event.
Skeleton
Read: Rahneva wins her first-ever World Cup in St. Moritz
Mirela Rahneva celebrates her first World Cup victory in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone via AP)
Mirela Rahneva’s incredible breakout season continues. In her debut season on the World Cup circuit, Rahneva won her first World Cup title on Saturday in Switzerland. Her recent gold brings her season’s World Cup medal count to three in only five events.
Bobsleigh
Read: Humphries and Lotholz race to bobsleigh silver in St. Moritz
Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz finished second in bobsleigh after an extremely close women’s competition where they finished a mere 0.01 seconds behind first. Leaving St. Moritz with a sliver medal, Canadian bobsleigh sliders will continue the World Cup circuit in Königssee, Germany next weekend.
Figure Skating
Read: Canadian figure skating team named for worlds
After a long weekend of competition at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Ottawa, Skate Canada selected its team for the upcoming 2017 ISU World Championships and PyeongChang 2018 test event.
Athletics – Pole Vault
Rio 2016 Olympian Alysha Newman set a new Canadian indoor pole vault record of 4.65m metres. Her record setting performance puts her among the best in the world this season, sitting third in the 2017 IAAF world indoor rankings.
Tennis
Read: Raonic advances to third straight Australian Open quarterfinal
Milos Raonic advanced to Australian Open quarterfinals for the third year in a row. The Canadian defeated 13th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
