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.

In the opening event of the weekend, Begg-Smith had a problem as he exited the landing on one of his jumps in qualifying, also recording a slow time down the course. He qualified in tenth place, normally an impossible posttion to win from in the 12-man final round reverse order format.
 
But he was yet again up to the challenge, producing impeccable turns, good speed and jumps that turned out to be the best of the round to set a score of 25.69, one his opponents could not match on a steep and tough course.
 
Japanese skier Nobuyuki Nishi was the best of the rest, earning 24.95 points for his first podium, while Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada took the bronze on 24.93 points.
 
The best of the other OWI skiers was Nick Fisher in 19th place on 22.06 points, three places ahead of Ramone Cooper on 21.72 points. Michael Robertson was in 27th place on 20.19 points.
 
In the second event, the Australian star 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 jump 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.

OWI Head Mogul Skiing Coach Steve Desovich on Dale Begg-Smith, following the opening Voss event: 

"He's on a very good roll at the moment, and it was a great run in the final," Desovich said.

"He had a problem landing and exiting the jump in qualification, but one thing Dale does do extraordinarily well is that when he does make a mistake he learns very well from it."

"That's one of his better attributes and it makes him such a good competitor."

"He made a switch in his line [down the course] for the final and that seemed to suit him better, and he skied a very good run - his turns, his speed and his air were all very good."

"It seems he can qualify first and win from there, or if something happens in qualifying and he is down the list he can pull out a good run to get on the podium as he did today."

"Winning the World Cup in the year after the Olympics is a really impressive achievement."

"A lot of the other guys are up and down, get let down after a big result, but Dale has stayed very even, kept his priorities straight, then gone on to do what a lot of very good skiers have not been able to do."