Olympic champion Jean-Frédéric Chapuis successfully retained his overall International Ski Federation (FIS) Ski-Cross World Cup title at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics test event in Bokwang.
The 26-year-old Frenchman, the gold medallist at Sochi 2014, was third in the big final on the South Korean course and now cannot be caught with just one World Cup left this season.
He has 644 points on top of the pile, ahead of Canada’s Brady Leman who has 523.
A maximum of 100 points are available at the final event in Arosa, Switzerland, where Chapuis, the winner of four events this season, will be able to relax.
Victory on the day went to another Frenchman, Bastien Midol, with the Winter X-Games silver medallist coming home in front of Germany’s Paul Eckert.
Canada’s Kevin Drury was the man to miss out on the medals in fourth in his first World Cup big final, with his challenge ended after he narrowly avoided a crash into the fencing.
Midol developed an unchallenged lead, with contact just before the line between Eckert and Chapuis ensuring a dramatic end to proceedings but one which didn’t alter the top three.
In the women’s race, Austria’s Andrea Limbacher won for the second time this season ahead of Kelsey Serwa of Canada and Sweden’s Anna Holmlund, who had already been crowned as the overall World Cup winner.
A dramatic finish to the big final saw Canadian leader Marielle Thompson crash and slip down to fourth as all three rivals passed her.
The World Cup was the last competition on the Pyeongchang 2015/16 test event calendar, with close racing summing up the action.
Six of the first eight men’s heats went to photo finishes.
- By Dan Palmer republished with permission insidethegames.biz