Dale Begg-Smith has become the first Australian to win a World Cup medal in a singles moguls skiing event, finishing second in Inawashiro, Japan, on Saturday (February 5).
Dale Begg-Smith has become the first Australian to win a World Cup medal in a singles moguls skiing event, finishing second in Inawashiro, Japan, on Saturday (February 5). He followed the silver medal result with a fifth in dual moguls on Sunday.
Begg-Smith, who finished second in his last start at the Deer Valley World Cup dual moguls event, qualified in eighth place in Saturday’s single moguls, but produced a superb run in the final to narrowly finish behind USA skier, Jeremy Bloom, the same man who beat him last start.
Bloom won with a score of 25.32 points, ahead of the Australian with 24.4 points, while local Japanese skier, Osamu Ueno, took the bronze scoring 23.87 points.
Sydney female skier, Maria Despas, won a silver medal in singles moguls, but that was at the 2001 World Championships not a World Cup event.
The singles result left the 20-year-old Australian ranked fourth in the world and clearly in the best form of his life going into the World Cup event on the 2006 Olympic course in Torino in a fortnight.
Fellow Australians Nick Fisher finished 17th and Michael Robertson 30th in the 44-man field.
In the dual moguls, Begg-Smith made it through to the quarter final round before being eliminated. He finished in fifth place on the basis of his qualifying run result. Robertson was 14th , Jason Begg-Smith 26th and Fisher 40th.
The next Moguls World Cup will be held at Naeba, Japan on February 11.
Begg-Smith, who finished second in his last start at the Deer Valley World Cup dual moguls event, qualified in eighth place in Saturday’s single moguls, but produced a superb run in the final to narrowly finish behind USA skier, Jeremy Bloom, the same man who beat him last start.
Bloom won with a score of 25.32 points, ahead of the Australian with 24.4 points, while local Japanese skier, Osamu Ueno, took the bronze scoring 23.87 points.
Sydney female skier, Maria Despas, won a silver medal in singles moguls, but that was at the 2001 World Championships not a World Cup event.
The singles result left the 20-year-old Australian ranked fourth in the world and clearly in the best form of his life going into the World Cup event on the 2006 Olympic course in Torino in a fortnight.
Fellow Australians Nick Fisher finished 17th and Michael Robertson 30th in the 44-man field.
In the dual moguls, Begg-Smith made it through to the quarter final round before being eliminated. He finished in fifth place on the basis of his qualifying run result. Robertson was 14th , Jason Begg-Smith 26th and Fisher 40th.
The next Moguls World Cup will be held at Naeba, Japan on February 11.
