Back-to-back World Cup victories for Anthony to start the season
Published Sun 11 Dec 2022
Courtesy OWIA
Jakara Anthony has continued her amazing start to the season, making it back-to-back victories to open the season with a gold medal performance in Idre Fjäll, Sweden.
The 2022 Olympic champion was dominant, leading from start to finish, moving through all three rounds of the competition in first place to record the sixth World Cup victory of her career, and second win of the season following on from the success at the opening World Cup event last weekend in Finland.
In the super-final, Anthony again had the highest scoring turns and jumps to score 81.75, and finish ahead on the podium of Anri Kawamura of Japan with a score of 80.02 points in second place, with French skier Perrine Laffont in third scoring 76.08.
“What a way to kick off the season,” said the 24-year-old from Barwon Heads in Victoria.
“I am really proud of how I have been able to progress over the days we have been on the course, there has been a lot of figuring out to do and a lot of changes to make, and I think I am making progress in the right direction.”
In the men’s event, three Australian’s again made finals, led by 2018 Olympic silver medallist Matt Graham who continued his strong comeback from injury with a sixth place finish, with teammate Cooper Woods narrowly behind in seventh and Jackson Harvey in eleventh place in just his second World Cup start.
George Murphy improved on his debut performance the week before in Finland to finish in 35th place.
The mogul action continues tomorrow in Idre Fjäll, with the first dual mogul event of the season taking place. Watch live from 9.30pm AEDT on Sunday 11 December at snow.org.au/live/
Anthony will again be one of the leading contenders after finishing last season ranked number one in dual moguls on the World Cup standings.
“Duals is wild and coming in winning the tour last year it’s going to be really exciting,” Anthony remarked.
“I just want to go out and working on the bits I know I need to improve.”
Dual moguls was added to the Olympic programme for the 2026 Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy, by the International Olympic Committee back in June, and will no doubt be one of the most spectacular events to watch.