Dale Begg-Smith has captured the dual mogul skiing title at the World Freestyle Championships, leading a medal feast by Australia's winter sports athletes.
 
Skiing alongside him in the northern Italian resort of Madonna di Campiglio, Jacqui Cooper won World Championship bronze in aerial skiing, eight years after winning the world title in 1999 (see separate story).
 
And across the Atlantic in Lake Placid, New York, Holly Crawford also collected bronze in snowboard halfpipe, her fifth medal of the season, to keep her World Cup title hopes alive (see separate story).

Rounding out the most successful weekend in Australian winter sports history, Torah Bright won the World Superpipe Championships in the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic pipe (see separate story).
 
Following up on his World Championship silver medal in single moguls a day earlier, Begg-Smith qualified first in the dual format event in Madonna, then demolished his opponents in the head-to head final rounds.
 
He defeated Finnish skier Tapio Luusua 35 points to zero in the round of 16, Sho Kashima of the USA 28 points to seven in the quarter finals, Ruslan Sharifullin of Russia 29 to six in the semi-final then ended a brilliant day with a 33 to two final victory over world number two Guilbaut Colas of France.
 
The victory gave the 22-year-old Torino gold medallist a season scoreline of seven victories and nine podiums from 12 events, a remarkable record.
 
"Dual moguls wasn't necessarily Dale's strength coming into the year, but he's so smart he's able to figure out ways to learn things and apply them and he skied very well today," said Olympic Winter Institute Head Moguls Coach Steve Desovich.
 
"Dual moguls is all about speed, and although Dale isn't always the fastest down the course in single moguls, he can step it up and put the pressure on his opponents  when he needs to."
 
"It's been a remarkably consistent year - nine podiums from 12 events is a tremendous performance."
 
A day earlier, Begg-Smith had just missed another gold, going down to Canadian skier Pierre Alexandre Rousseau in the single moguls, but making the podium in a major championship for the third time in three attempts.
 
The silver followed the his gold medal at the Torino Olympics and his bronze at the 2005 World Championships.
 
Rousseau skied his best run for the season in the final, scoring 27.17 points to the Australian's 26.65.
 
American Nathan Roberts took the bronze with 26.63 points.
 
The youngest member of the Olympic Winter Institute team, Ramone Cooper, had a most impressive World Championships debut.
 
In the single moguls, Cooper qualified one spot ahead of Begg-Smith in sixth place, but then could not repeat the performance in the final, finishing in 15th position.
 
He again made the finals in the dual moguls, placing 15th in qualifying then going down by the narrowest margin 17 to 18 to eventual silver medallist Guilbaut Colas of France.
 
OWI head moguls coach Steve Desovich was thrilled with Begg-Smith's single moguls result, and also impressed with the performance of Cooper.
 
"To me, it's a tremendous performance," Desovich said.
 
"Dale was under the gun in the final, and he put down a fine quality run."
 
"To run silver in a major competition under any circumstances is an exceptional result and to do it after the season he has had is just tremendous."
 
"He wasn't quite perfect today, but I'm ecstatic."
 
"To make the podium in the three major events that he's done, when the pressure is really on, that's a remarkable effort."
 
"Dale is just such a consistent performer. He's a competition genius, really. He knows what he has to do and he just delivers."
 
"Rousseau went all out and was skiing on the fringe and it looked like he was going to go out, but he managed to hold on and credit to him."

"Ramone has really demonstrated that he belongs in the team, and to make two finals in his first World Championships is a very good result."
 
"He skied very well to qualify for the single moguls final, but then he got a bit excited in the final and tried too much, which is what often happens."
 
The other two Australians at the Championships had an event they would prefer to forget, Nick Fisher finishing in 43rd place in the single moguls and 27th place in the duals.
 
Michael Robertson fared far worse, sustaining a suspected ACL injury in the single moguls and taking no further part in the action.