Janne Lahtela begins new freestyle moguls season where he left off

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Olympic gold medallist Janne Lahtela ended the last FIS World Cup freestyle season wearing the yellow bib of the cup leader, and he amassed a healthy 918 World Cup points in the moguls.
      At Tignes in France on Thursday, the 30-year-old Lahtela had no need to remove his bib, as he collected another 100 points and raced to victory over Americans Travis Mayer (the silver medallist at Salt Lake City in 2002) and Travis-Antone Cabral.
      On a course that was hard-packed and demanding, Lahtela preferred to keep to the same repertoire that won him last year’s title, but new jumps are in his arsenal and waiting to be brought out.
      He may do so in the New Year, when the World Cup events move to the United States and Canada. There was supposed to have been a competition next week at La Plagne in France, but poor snow conditions caused it to be cancelled.
     
For Lahtela and the other Finnish moguls specialists, including Lauri Lassila, who was 9th on Thursday, the big event this season is the Freestyle World Championships, which will be hosted for the first time by Finland.
      The Championships will be held in mid-March at the Ruka ski-resort near Kuusamo.
      The moguls qualification and final are scheduled for Saturday March 19th.


Links:
  FIS Freestyle Skiing, Cup Standings

Helsingin Sanomat