Vincent Gagnier clinches AFP Big Air win at Whistler
Canada’s Vincent Gagnier put on a superb performance to walk away with top honours from the World Skiing Invitational Big Air, part of the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) World Championships, which went down at Whistler, BC, on Saturday, April
13, 2013.
America’s Gus Kenworthy had to settle for second position, but he hardly had any reason to feel disappointed about missing out on the Big Air win since he had clinched the AFP overall championship title. Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut finished in third place.
During Friday’s proceedings, the riders were not too confident about the jump as it appeared to be a bit fat and did not offer enough elevation.
However, four inches of snow during the night set up a nice stage for the riders to step up a bit during the qualifiers and eventually the final on Saturday.
Some pretty strong contenders such as Tom Wallisch and Jossi Wells failed to make it into the finals after failing to make much of an impact during their qualifying runs.
The day mostly featured double corks, with the riders adding a bit of spice to the trick in a bid to impress the judges. Majority of the riders opted to go for a double cork 1080 as they battled it out for a spot in the final.
While the qualifiers delivered exciting action, the real fun began during the finals, when the five finalists took each other on in a bout for the Big Air title.
The first place had been evading Gagnier for quite some time now, even though he was constantly bringing a very impressive and unique trick of his, a double bio 10 octo-grab, to the contest for the past two years. It had brought him third place two years
back and got him to second place last year.
This year, however, the Canadian rider managed to go all the way to the top with yet another excellent execution of his trademark trick. The judges deemed the trick as the best one of the night and awarded him 92.0 points for his effort, which brought him
the win.
"It's my best trick and I'm the only one who can do it, so it made sense to do it here," he said.
Kenworthy finished in second place with a score of 91.0 points, while Harlaut rounded out the top-three with a best score of 90.0.
Espen Bergh finished fourth with 88.00 points, whereas Russ Henshaw finished just a few decimal points behind him with a score of 87.33 points.
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