Philippe Marquis of Canada competes in the men's moguls race during the FIS freestyle World Cup in Are March 9, 2012. Marquis won the race. REUTERS/Pontus Lundahl/ScanpixPontus Lundahl/Reuters
Philippe Marquis took his first victory in a World Cup in a mogul event at Are, Sweden, Friday, and did it the hard way – defeating dominant teammate Mikael Kingsbury in the men's final.
Kingsbury, who has been on the podium at every stop this winter, and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe both earned silvers in Canada's three-medal day.
Marquis scored 24.79 in the super final to beat Kingsbury, who earned 24.48 points. Japan's Sho Endo was third with a score of 24.23.
The changing weather conditions on the course, from rain to sun and back to rain for the super finals didn't hamper Marquis' performance.
"This place has been amazing for years, and today was my first final on this course.," said Marquis of Quebec City. "It's a really good course to rip. It was okay with the changing weather because we just got back from (a familiarization trip to) Sochi where we skied in all kinds of weather too."
Marquis admitted that after a long season on the road, his body is battered and tired. He needs to rest up for the dual mogul event Saturday.
"No celebrating for me. Tonight it's going to be hot tub, massage, physio, a big meal and back to bed'" he said. "Actually today was a lot of runs and my body is dead, but when you win, everything is fresh and good."
Kingsbury has sewn up the Crystal Globe with eight wins and three silvers. He said he was happy that if he had to relinquish the gold it was to his teammate.
"Today was a great day, I skied well in quallies [qualifying round]and in finals. I had some mistakes in my super final but I'm happy to have Phil up there on the podium with me and to share his first World Cup win with him," said the 19-year-old Deux-Montagnes native.
This year's crystal globe winner has never won on the Are course.
"Make no mistake, I'm going for the win tomorrow (in the dual mogul event)," he said.
Other Canadian men to advance to finals included Langley, B.C.'s Eddie Hicks who was eighth; Terrebonne, Que.'s Marc-Antoine Gagnon in 11th and Montreal's P-O Gagné who was 13th in his first World Cup final.
Montreal's Chloé Dufour-Lapointe, the middle sister of the three acrobatic Dufour-Lapointe girls, earned her silver in the super final behind Hannah Kearney of the United States. Kearney had 25.04, Dufour-Lapointe 23.53 and Japan's Arisa Murata 23.37.
It was the Canadian's fourth World Cup medal and her second career silver.
"I have kind of changed my focus and it is working for me," said Dufour-Lapointe. "In some of the other competitions this year I put some pressure on my shoulders but at the last World Cup I decided to have more fun and let the results be what they're going to be. It really worked and I now I'm having so much more fun when I'm skiing. It's always been my key to have fun, but sometimes the stress makes me forget that."
The eldest Dufour-Lapointe sister, Maxime, was the next Canadian woman, at 10th, Audrey Robichaud from Quebec City was 13th.
Canadian women not in the finals were Lorraine, Que.'s Alexandra Dufresne 19th; Justine Dufour-Lapointe 21st and Chelsea Henitiuk of Spruce Grove, Alta., in 22nd.