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Heil out-duals field for gold

MADONNA di CAMPIGLIO, Italy, March 10, 2007 – Freestyle skier Jenn Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta., captured her second straight World Championship dual-moguls crown Saturday, and her second medal in as many days.

Heil, who now lives in Montreal, clinched the victory by defeating Shannon Bahrke of the United States in the head-to-head dual to determine gold.

Jenn Heil
Jenn Heil

Friday, Heil was the silver medallist behind surprise-winner Kristi Richards of Summerland, B.C. in single moguls. This time, Richards lost the bronze-medal dual to Margarita Marbler of Austria to finish fourth.

Heil brought the Canadian collection to five medals at the 11th Freestyle FIS World Championships by winning all four of her duals. En route to the final, she defeated Ljudmila Dymchenko of Russia, Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic and Richards.

At the last World Championships, in 2005, Heil won the dual moguls and placed fifth in singles.

“I knew that I needed more aggression, so that was my overall goal,” said Heil, in alluding to her second-place finish Friday.

“I was fairly tired today, but I think I brought that aggression to every run. (Friday) I was disappointed for not bringing the performance and the energy needed.”

Richards finished fourth, but appeared to be headed for the bronze, Saturday.

“I had my best start all day and I had a really good top air,” said Richards of her bronze-medal dual with Marbler. “I really thought I had it, and one bump in the middle section (of the course) caught me off guard.”

The other Canadian women were Stephanie St-Pierre of Victoriaville, Que., in eighth and Sylvia Kerfoot of Vancouver in 13th.

Dale Begg-Smith, a Canadian-born skier who now competes for Australia, defeated Guilbaut Colas of France in the men’s dual to determine gold. The dual-moguls bronze medal went to Ruslan Sharifulin of Russia who beat compatriot Artem Valinteev.

Valinteev spoiled hopes of a medal for Alex Bilodeau of Rosemère, Que., who had finished third in the qualifying round. With the loss to Valinteev, Bilodeau emerged fifth.

Friday he was 14th in single moguls.

“I had two good qualification rounds, but in both finals it was disappointing, for sure,” said Bilodeau.

“I didn’t perform like I wish I could here, but it’s a lot of experience and my first World Championships.”

Maxime Gingras of St-Hippolyte, Que., was eighth, Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau of Drummondville, Que., ninth and Warren Tanner of Grimsby, Ont., 37th.

The day before, Rousseau was the shocking winner of the men’s single moguls, despite not winning a World Cup single-moguls medal all season. In his 10 years on the World Cup squad, Rousseau now has seven top-10 World Championship finishes.

Earlier Saturday, Steve Omischl of Kelowna, B.C., captured a bronze medal in the men’s aerials final won by 2006 Olympic champion Xiaopeng Han of China. Jeff Bean was ninth in the last international event of his 11-year career.

In the women’s aerials final, Nina Li won her second straight World Championship title. Toronto’s Veronika Bauer, the 2001 world champion, placed seventh.

For detailed results and standings, click here.

-- Posted March 10, 2007