With the 2008 World Cup moguls skiing title wrapped up, Dale Begg-Smith has finished his season with a fifth placing in the final event in Valmalenco, Italy. Begg-Smith led the qualification round, but made an uncharacteristic error in his final run.
With the 2008 World Cup moguls skiing title wrapped up, Dale Begg-Smith has finished his season with a fifth placing in the final event in Valmalenco, Italy.
Begg-Smith led the qualification round, but made an uncharacteristic error in his final run.
In a very tight event, the 23-year-old Olympic champion ended with 22.91 points, .35 points behind the winner, David Babic of the USA, who earned 23.26 from the judges.
Canadian Vincent Marquis took silver on 23.24 points, while Patrick Deneen, also of the USA, rounded out the podium on 23.18 points.
Begg-Smith ended the season with a total of 644 points, a massive 165 points clear of his nearest rival, Guilbaut Colas of France.
In another remarkably consistent season, he collected three victories, two silver medals and three other top five placings from the ten events contested.
Most significantly, he became just the second person in the history of the sport to claim three consecutive World Cup titles, matching the great French skier, 1992 Olympic champion Edgar Grospiron.
“Dale was on track for another win, but made a mistake in the middle of the course,” said Olympic Winter Institute head mogul skiing coach Steve Desovich.
“He was disappointed to finish the season like that, but really, he has had another tremendous year.”
“To win three in a row, and to also be the Olympic champion, is just a terrific performance.”
The women’s World Cup title went to Aiko Uemura of Japan, after a blistering second half of the season that saw her win five events straight.
Uemura ended on 683 points, 143 ahead of Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic.
