Kearney collects record-breaking 15th straight moguls World Cup win

By Sportsbeat staff

HANNAH KEARNEY chalked up her 15th consecutive FIS World Cup moguls victory to break Swedish alpine skiing great Ingemar Stenmark's record for straight World Cup wins in Beida Lake, China.

RECORD BREAKER: The USA's Hannah Kearney chalks up a 15th straight World Cup win in China

The 25-year-old 2010 Winter Olympic champion from the USA survived a scare to scrape into the final round but bounced back to take gold with 25.69 points, edging out Canada's Justine Dufour-Lapointe (25.39) while Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan completed the podium in third.

It's Kearney's eighth straight win of the season and 15th in a row since January 2011, ensuring she eclipses Stenmark's run of 14 giant slalom World Cup wins between 1978-80 to take her place in the record books.

"It's insane. I had no idea about the record," Kearney said. "It's great to have this record as a freestyle skier. Alpine has a lot more races, thus more opportunities to start a streak.

"That is the biggest honour that can possibly receive considering all the amazing athletes that have crossed through the FIS World Cup circuit throughout the years.

"I had to fight. The course wasn't really suited for my type of skiing, so I worked on it all week.

"I made the super finals in fourth place and had to really ski for my life. I skied aggressively and went really big off the bottom air and was rewarded with the victory."

Meanwhile, in the men's event, Mikael Kingsbury of Canada picked up his seventh win out of eight this season, returning to winning ways having settled for silver last time out.

Kingsbury collected 26.53 points to extend his huge lead at the top of the overall standings with Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Reiherd taking silver and bronze going to another Canadian Philippe Marquis.  

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