Colas leads Bilodeau in Olympic moguls qualifying

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

 FRANCE'S Guilbaut Colas continued his excellent pre-Olympic form in Vancouver and topped the leaderboard in qualifying for the freestyle skiing moguls at Cypress Mountain.

PACE SETTER: France's Guilbaut Colas collects the best score in qualifying for the freestyle skiing moguls event in Cypress Mountain (Getty Images)

The 26-year-old racked up 25.93 points to set the pace in qualifying, while Vancouver-born Australian Dale Begg-Smith, the defending Olympic champion, could only manage fourth place.

Colas collected victory in the two World Cup tournaments prior to the start of the Games in Deer Valley and Lake Placid - bringing to an end Begg-Smith's winning streak of three.

And the Frenchman, a 2007 world silver medallist, was at it again in Cypress Mountain, to top the standings in qualifying, ahead of Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau, who collected 25.48.

Bilodeau is the 2009 overall World Cup moguls winner and collected dual moguls gold at the 2009 World Championships, but has failed to reproduce that form this season, and has achieved just three podium finishes this campaign.

But the 22-year-old showed his quality on home soil, where he will bid to become Canada's first ever home Olympic gold medal winner on Sunday, attempting to go one better than Jennifer Heil, who had to settle for silver behind Hannah Kearney on Saturday.

Third in qualifying was the USA's Bryon Wilson, who amassed 25.06 points.

AS IT HAPPENS: Day three of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver