Men’s Freestyle
Kieran Reilly (Great Britain) impressed when leading both qualifying runs with Marcus Christopher (United States) qualifying second. Ernest Zebolds (Latvia) started the final with a 86.94. Gustavo Batista de Oliveira (Brazil) would soon eclipse that with a 90.20 only for Jose Torres Gil (Argentina) to go to 94.82. Home favourite Anthony Jeanjean (France) would go down hard on his first run. Reilly would go second with 93.70. Rimu Nakamura (Japan) would improve his second run a bit to score 90.89. Jeanjean would put together a massive combination of opening jumps and was given a 93.76. Logan Martin (Australia) would not defend his crown as his touched down on his second run. Christopher could only score 93.21 to just miss out on the medals. Final man down was Reilly with a guaranteed medal. It was a big run but it would only score 93.91 to win silver.
🥇Jose Torres Gil 🇦🇷
🥈Kieran Reilly 🇬🇧
🥉Anthony Jeanjean 🇫🇷
I mention Gil as an outsider but even in the final, it felt surprising that he was able to compete. It seems like a benefit to go early in the final. I thought Reilly had the ability to go stronger on the second run but he did not put it together. It felt like Martin adopted a gold or bust mentality which hindered my medal prediction.
Men’s Race
It was a French one-two-three in the quarter finals led by Svlvain Andre (France). Again in the semis, it was the dominant Frenchmen as only they won races. Roman Mahieu (France) won all three semi-finals in the second semi whilst Andre split races with Joris Daudet (France). In the final Mahieu got the quickest start and the French trio would lead into the first corner after Izaac Kennedy (Australia) was pushed wide by Mahieu. It was Daudet who led and soon opened a big gap. The positions would remain and French would seal a one-two-three. Cedric Butti (Switzerland) would come closest to passing the Frenchman but could not manage it.
🥇Joris Daudet 🇫🇷
🥈Sylvain Andre 🇫🇷
🥉Romain Mahieu 🇫🇷
It feels silly when you go to predict a sweep. I mainly got this right, with the five names mentioned as the likeliest contenders, also the five names relevant in the review of the final. Kennedy will perhaps feel he could have medalled if he hadn’t have been driven wide.
Women’s Freestyle
Hannah Roberts (United States) scored biggest in the first qualification run and although Deng Yawen (China) went best in the second run, Roberts qualified in first with a better average. Arguably the biggest news was Charlotte Worthington (Great Britain) missing out on qualification. The early lead came from Natalya Diehm (Australia) with an 88.50. Sun Jiaqi (China) would almost nail a big run but fell towards the end of the run. Compatriot Yawen laid down a great run, including triple bars, to score 92.50. Roberts would fall on a front flip in her first run. With four women left it was Queen Villegas Serna (Colombia) on 88 in bronze. Parris Benegas (United States) would go into second with a score of 90.70. Jiaqi would again fall on a massive jump. Yawen would improve to 92.60 leaving just Roberts capable of beating her. Roberts would put her foot down on the first trick and would miss out on the medals.
🥇Deng Yawen 🇨🇳
🥈Parris Benegas 🇺🇸
🥉Natalya Diehm 🇦🇺
Again, it was a gold or bust mentality which potentially cost Roberts, whereas a safe run would have probably got her in the medals. I had a feeling Worthington would miss the final but did not go out on the limb and actually predict it. Benegas and Diehm are mentioned but I did not see either competing, especially Diehm.
Women’s Race
Alice Willoughby (United States), Bethany Shriever (Great Britain) and Saya Sakakibara (Great Britain) would dominate their heats, winning all three races. Shriever and Sakakibara would repeat that feat in the semi finals with Manon Veenstra (Netherlands) and Laura Smulders (Netherlands) tying on nine points to qualify joint second. In the final, it was Sakkibara who reach the corner first with Zoe Claessens (Switzerland) and Veenstra battling behind her. No one was able to come from behind and they finished behind the dominant Australian.
🥇Saya Sakakibara 🇦🇺
🥈Manon Veenstra 🇳🇱
🥉Zoe Claessens 🇨🇭
The whole competition this looked like a battle between Sakakibara and Shriever, only for Shriever to get a poor start and never really contend in the final. I referenced the Dutch team and thought that Claasens could win a shock medal.
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