Second place for the women went to Karker’s Canadian teammate Amy Fraser, as the 27-year-old hit a career milestone with her first World Cup podium.
Fraser has been progressing in leaps and bounds since her World Cup debut in the 2019/20 season, and on Saturday at Copper that was on full display as she started things off with a switch right 540, into a switch left 540, and then a switch right 720 Japan, a left flair safety, a right corked 900 and finally a left corked 900 to finish things off with a score 85.25.
Third place for the women belonged to Kelly Sildaru of Estonia, who was once again her consistent and technical self while earning a score of 82.00. Beginning her run with a right side 900, Sidaru then went left 540 tail grab, left alley-oop 540 tail, right alley-oop 540 tail, right 720 tail, switch left 720 tail, and finally, squeezing one more hit out of the pipe, a switch right 540 Japan.
FINAL RUN HEROICS GIVE IRVING THE EDGE
The men’s competition at Copper was a wild and dramatic affair, with an incredible combination of landed runs and highlight tricks warming up the vibe even while the temperatures around the venue plummeted.
Heading into his final run, Birk Irving was sitting in third place after a first-run score of 89.25, and knew he would have to step it up in run three if he was going to bump Brendan Mackay (CAN) out of the top spot the Canadian had held since his first attempt.
And step it up Irving did, coming out of the gate with a switch left 1080 tail grab, into a huge right double cork 1260 Japan, and then a perfect left double cork 1440 safety, a switch right 720 Japan, and finally a mind-bending left double down-the-pipe 720 safety to finish things off, earning himself a score of 93.57 and his first World Cup win in over three years.
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