Canada's Justine Dufour-Lapointe and France's Anthony Benna earned victories in Deer Valley ©FIS

Olympic moguls champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe topped the podium at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Freestyle World Cup after producing a clean run during the women’s final in Deer Valley, United States.

The Canadian skier had qualified impressively for the semi-finals of the dual moguls competition, where she was expected to be the favourite against 19-year-old Jaelin Kauf.

Dufour-Lapointe proved able to overcome the American, who was competing at just her fourth World Cup event, to reach the gold medal race.

She would meet Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galysheva, after she eliminated another home favourite in Mikaela Matthews, ensuring that the title would not be won by a home skier.

Galysheva could not significantly threaten Dufour-Lapointe in the final, as the Canadian delivered a quick and fast run to beat her rival by a score of 22 to 13.

“In Deer Valley you have to be so consistent, especially in the dual event,” said Dufour-Lapointe.

“I wouldn’t say I was stressed, but it’s always tough to know you’re going to have to do five runs and always be awesome.

“So it’s a big challenge, but I’m so glad about the way I focused.

“I stayed in my zone, I didn’t get distracted by the person next to me and I couldn’t have done better than this.”

Kauf claimed her first World Cup podium finish by overcoming Matthews in an all-American battle for bronze.

The result saw Dufour-Lapointe extend her lead at the top of the World Cup standings to 86 points over her sister Chloe, having moved onto a total of 404 by winning the event.

The home crowd were denied American success on the final day of the event
The home crowd were denied American success on the final day of the event ©FIS

Meanwhile, the men’s World Cup leader Mikael Kingsbury was surprisingly defeated in the quarter-finals of their competition by Finland’s Jimi Salonen, who then defeated Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Reiherd to reach the final.

Salonen would face France’s Anthony Benna, who had beaten Kazakhstan’s Pavel Kolmakov in his last four encounter, but the Finn struggled out of the start gate to give his opponent an early boost.

Reigning moguls world champion Benna made the most of his advantage to secure a comfortable 21-14 win, to secure just the second World Cup win of his career.

Kolmakov was able to defeat his team-mate Reiherd to win bronze.

Despite his early exit, Kingsbury remains in control of the overall World Cup standings having moved onto 425 points, with Australia’s Matt Graham currently second on 286.

The next World Cup moguls event is scheduled to take place in Tazawako, Japan, on February 27 and 28.