Eileen Gu and Brendan Mackay at the halfpipe double in Calgary
BySportsbeat
Updated 02/01/2022 at 13:12 GMT
Eileen Gu and Brendan Mackay won back-to-back halfpipe events as the freeski World Cup took on the Calgary Snow Rodeo. Mackay now sits top of the halfpipe World Cup standings with 260 points. Gu is also leading the way in the women's rankings having won all three of the halfpipe events so far this season.
Calgary halfpipe - Mackay best jump for victory
Image credit: Eurosport
Hometown hero Brendan Mackay won both halfpipe freeski events in Calgary matching the feat of Eileen Gu in the women's competition.
The competitors were up against the chinook winds that Alberta is known for and Mackay's experience on his local halfpipe told, finishing three points ahead of Alex Ferreira in an all-North American top six.
China's Gu was even more dominant in the women's event as Canadian Rachael Karker was forced to settle for silver having finished 3.4 points back in the standings.
Mackay took the lead on the first of his three runs and never relinquished it, even posting the second-highest score on his final run, as Ferriera improved on his third attempt to clinch silver with 90.40 points.
Noah Bowman ensured it was two Canadians on the podium having missed out by one place on Friday, his second run of 88.00 saw him finish 1.40 points ahead of the US's Dylan Ladd.
The 24-year-old Mackay backed up his first-ever World Cup victory one night earlier and now sits top of the halfpipe World Cup standings with 260 points, equal with Ferreira.
He said: "It feels awesome. It's hard to describe, but I'm just so stoked to have put it down tonight. It felt great.
"I've skied this pipe for 15 years and it's pretty often windy, so I'm pretty used to it.
"A lot of the time I don't even feel it in the air, it's more of just a mental battle, so I just turned up my music and tried to ignore it, and it worked out."
Gu is also leading the way in the women's rankings having won all three of the halfpipe events so far this season, her score of 300 sees her sit 80 points ahead of Karker who finished with silver behind Gu for the second time this season.
The 18-year-old's score of 92.80 on her second run was enough to clinch victory as she was the only skier to pass the 90 mark.
Hanna Faulhaber of the USA rounded out another North American top three with a score of 88.60, as Zoe Atkin of Great Britain recorded a season-high of sixth place in the halfpipe to be the top European in Calgary.
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