Bilodeau and Robichaud win national Dual Moguls titles

STE-ADELE, Que., March 23, 2008 – Alex Bilodeau of Rosemère, Que., and Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City emerged victorious in dual-moguls action at the Canada Post Freestyle National Championships Sunday.

With Kristi Richards of Summerland, B.C., favoured to capture her second gold medal of the championships, Robichaud’s win was the upset of the day.

“It’s so awesome,” said Robichaud, 19, after collecting her second-ever medal at the nationals. The other, in 2004, was also gold.

Richards, who was fourth in dual moguls at the 2007 world championships, was seeded No. 1 after winning the morning qualification round. However, she was eliminated and emerged ninth, after going off course and losing her opening dual to 16th-seeded Béatrice Bilodeau of Rosemère, Que.

That helped pave the way for 2006 Olympic team-mate Robichaud’s second national title. Robichaud, 19, opened the season strongly with a silver medal at the U.S. selection trials. She also kept the momentum going with several strong World Cup showings, including fourth in Lake Placid to finish 12th in the season’s World Cup overall women’s moguls standings.

“I was really tired, but I didn’t give up,” said Robichaud, who placed second in the Sunday morning qualifications. She then won her first three duals, over Christel Hamel of St. Sauveur, Maxime Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal and Nathalie Bazin of Quebec City.

“Competing at the Olympics was the biggest thrill, but this means a lot too,” said Robichaud, after winning the gold-medal dual against Chelsea Henitiuk of Calgary.
Henitiuk took the silver medal, while Bazin beat Jackie Brown of Cambridge, Ont., to clinch the bronze.

The men’s dual moguls competition was electrifying, as Vincent Marquis of Quebec City lost 18-17 to Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau in one world-class semi-final. Bilodeau won the other semi-final over the surprising Mikael Kingsbury, 15, of Deux Montagnes, Que., to reach the final. That left Marquis, the world’s third ranked moguls skier, to win his bronze-medal dual over Kingsbury for his second bronze of the weekend.

In the Rousseau vs. Bilodeau final, Rousseau was just a bit off on his opening air before the two crossed the finish line together. “We were going at it,” said Rousseau. “It was one of my most challenging duals ever. If we had to do it again and again, we’d probably change places every time.” Bilodeau agreed.

“We both did great jumps and had great speed in the middle, and great technique,” said Bilodeau. “If we had been at a World Cup, there probably would have been two or three of us on the podium.”

With the win, Bilodeau, 20, now has one single- and three dual-moguls national titles.
But this might be the best of them.

“I skied to my potential all week. I’m really glad to finish the season like this,” he explained. “I did the best I could in singles and I did the best I could in duals.”

This year Bilodeau ranked fourth overall in the World Cup moguls standings behind third-ranked Marquis and ahead of seventh-ranked Rousseau.