Australian moguls skier Dale Begg-Smith has finished in seventh place in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, in just his fifth event on the World Cup circuit.

Olympic Winter Institute team-mate Michael Robertson finished in ninth place.

Begg-Smith, 18, qualified fifth to make his first World Cup final, then went on to score 24.58 points in the 12 man final behind event winner Nathan Roberts of the United States.

It was the American’s first World Cup win, racking up 25.42 points to narrowly edge out Salt Lake 2002 gold medallist Janne Lahtela of Finland on 25.38 and US team-mate Travis Cabral on 25.31.

OWI moguls coach Steve Desovich declared it “a good result at this stage”.

“To have two in the top ten is good for us. We’re a young team – Dale is just 18 and Michael is only 21 – and at this stage of our progress, to get two top tens is a good stepping stone.”

“We’ve had a very rough start to the season, and to get a couple in the final before the Christmas break is a real lift, and a great way to start the second part of the season.”

“Both of the guys had problems on the second jump today, and we’ve sat down and talked about that and identified some definite things we can work on”.

“We’ll have worse days than this, but there are better days to come as well.”

Begg-Smith’s brother Jason finished in 31st place with Nick Fisher in 46th.

Robertson now moves to 12th place on the World Cup standings on 63 points. Lahtela leads the standings on 280 points from Roberts on 145.

The women’s event was won by Olympic, and World Champion Kari Traa of Norway, with Olympic silver medallist and 2002/2003 World Cup Champion Shannon Bahrke of the USA in second and Canadian Stephanie St Pierre in third. The Australian duo of Jane Sexton and Manuela Berchtold finished in 20th and 21st place, missing the final.

Results

Men
1. Nathan Roberts USA 25.42 points
2. Janne Lahtela FIN 25.38
3. Travis Cabral USA 25.
7. Dale Begg-Smith AUS 24.58
9. Michael Robertson AUS 22.99

Women
1. Kari Traa NOR 25.03
2. Shannon Bahrke USA 24.50
3. Stephanie St Pierre CAN 23.76

Courtesy Sportcom/ www.owia.org