Simon d’Artois Tops the Podium in Secret Garden
Freestyle Canada – Secret Garden, China, December 20, 2018– The Canadian ski halfpipe team ended the year on a high note on Thursday in Secret Garden, China, with two podium showings.
Simon d’Artois won his first career World Cup in convincing fashion, earning the day’s top score of 93.50 in his last run. It should be noted that he’d skied beautifully in his halfpipe practice runs.
“I am super excited with how today went. This is my first-ever first place World Cup podium,” said d’Artois. “I’ve been skiing consistently and I’m happy to have been able to put down three solid runs. I am really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
At the last World Cup event in Copper Mountain, d’Artois had finished sixth. So he leaves China with the yellow bib as leader in the FIS World Cup rankings.
For her part, the young Rachael Karker continues to carve out her own place amid the best in the discipline in her first official season with the World Cup team. She was able to sustain the momentum from the Dew Tour to grab a second-place finish, two points behind local favourite Zhang Kexin.
“I am happy with how the event went. I took some pretty heavy falls in training and I was feeling a bit run down and exhausted from the past three weeks with all of the contests we have done and coming straight to China after Dew Tour. I am grateful to have been able to compete in the next Olympic venue pipe and able to stand on the podium here,” said Karker.
All of the Freestyle Canada skiers now get to take a break for the holiday season. The competition calendar resumes in early January with the FIS moguls World Cup in Calgary.
Secret Garden World Cup results:
Women: Rachael Karker (2)
Men: Simon d’Artois (1), Brendan Mackay (5), Evan Marineau (12)
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