After weather conditions have forced cancellation of the scheduled World Cup moguls event Saturday, the ladies completed a single-run final, without qualifications Sunday.
In the World Cup Freestyle FIS World Cup action Sunday at Inawashiro, Japan, Aiko Uemura, of Japan, came up with her first win of the season on Sunday, ending Jennifer Heil's four-competition winning streak on the World Cup moguls circuit. The Canadian 2010 Olympic silver medallist Heil scored 22.73 points to take second behind Uemura, who was fourth at the recent Olympics. Uemura won gold Sunday with 23.00.
American Shannon Bahrke was third in 22.20, matching her Olympic bronze medal finish and earning 22.20 points, while Olympic champion Hannah Kearney of the U.S. was not competing.
"It was a great run," Heil said in a news release. "It was very clean on such a challenging course. It's the hardest course in the world by far, so I just kept it simple and did a technically strong run," Heil said.
Heil, a four-time overall World Cup champion, still leads the standings with 565 points, followed by American Heather McPhie in second with 466. Sunday's medal was the Canadian's sixth in her last six starts, after beginning the season with a fifth-place showing in Suomu, Finland last December. The Canadian superstar also won the title in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and was second overall last year. She did not compete in the 2007-08 season. Last year she was second overall.
The men's moguls event was cancelled on both days due to heavy fog after about half the racers completed their runs Sunday, including Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau of Canada. He was in the lead when the event got called, while Olympic silver medalist Dale Begg-Smith of Australia was just behind Bilodeau in second.
The World Cup circuit resumes with moguls events Friday and Saturday in Are, Sweden.
