Dale Begg-Smith has emphatically confirmed his status as the world’s number one moguls skier, winning gold in Lake Placid to stretch his lead at the top of the World Cup points table.

Begg-Smith’s 13th career victory followed a silver medal at the same New York state venue on Friday, and propels him to a 64-point lead in the title chase.

The 23-year-old sits on 220 points after three of the season’s 11 events, with Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau his nearest challenger on 156 points.

And in Kreischberg, Austria, former Olympic alpine skier Jenny Owens claimed bronze in a World Cup ski cross event, her second podium of the week.

Begg-Smith qualified in first place, leading in the turn points and fourth in the air, but skiing a conservative pace down the hill.

But in the final he pulled out all stops, claiming the best turn points once again, rating third best in the air, and blitzing all but one other skier in his speed down the course.

He ended with 26.37 points, 0.8 ahead of Bilodeau, with Patrick Deneen of the USA third on 25.32 points in what was the American’s second podium finish for the weekend.

Begg-Smith has now won five of his last seven events, and made the podium in one of the others.

AIS/OWI Head moguls coach Steve Desovich labeled the Australian’s performance in the final as “one of the better runs I have ever seen from him”.

“Dale learned his lesson from two days ago when he was really wild in the middle section,” Desovich said.

“He made all the adjustments he had to make very nicely, and that’s pretty typical of Dale – he knows what he is doing in terms of performance and he learns from his mistakes.”

“He had a really nice all round run today with no weaknesses, he hit the turns really clean and the speed was spectacular.”

“It’s obviously pretty early but the fact that he has the gold bib is good – it was a great performance today, and the important thing is to go to Mont Gabriel and continue with the good skiing and get everything together.”

Begg-Smith’s AIS/OWI team-mate Ramone Cooper could not repeat his finals appearance of the opening Lake Placid event, finishing in 22nd place on 22.29 points.

Cooper sits in 14th place on the World Cup standings on 49 points.

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom