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05 March 2007
Dale Begg-Smith has reinforced his dominant status in mogul
skiing by winning back to back events at the final of the
World Cup season.
Having secured the World Cup title in the opening event in
Voss, Norway, on Friday, he backed up a day later to stretch
his lead over his nearest rivals and underline his
favouritism for next weekend's World Freestyle
Championships.
The 22-year-old ended the season with four consecutive wins
and 784 points, a massive 288 clear of nearest rival
Guilbaut Colas of France.
His five wins for the season took his career tally of
victories to 12.
It is the first time in Australia's winter sports history
that two skiers have held World Cup titles simultaneously,
Jacqui Cooper taking the women's aerial skiing crown two
weeks ago.
Begg-Smith was once again not at his best in qualifying,
poor jump scores relegating him to sixth place.
But in the final he was supreme, scoring 14.4 out of a
possible 15 for his turns and posting the third highest
jumps scores of the day.
He finished on 25.67 points, just pipping Finnish skier Sami
Mustonen on 25.50 points with American David Babic in third
place on 24.82 points.
Olympic Winter Institute team-mate Ramone Cooper was in 24th
position on 21.40 points, while Nick Fisher had a bad day,
finishing in 39th position on 8.29 points.
Begg-Smith and the rest of the Australian team will now
contest the World Freestyle championships next weekend in
Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
Courtesy OWI/Sportcom
İFIS
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