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Canada collects first '10 Olympic gold

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada collected the first gold medal for the host country at the Vancouver Olympics Sunday with a win in freestyle skiing moguls.

Canadian athletes suffered disappointments in the women's moguls Saturday and the women's 3,000-meter speed skating event Sunday but Bilodeau came through to fulfill the promise he showed when he took up the sport.

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Bilodeau was named the moguls rookie of the year four seasons ago by the International Ski Federation but he had yet to back up that honor with a really big campaign.

He turned in the second-best qualifying effort Sunday and then, in the next-to-last performance of the finals, he received a score of 26.75 to take the lead.

Guilbaut Colas of France was the last to go down the course and he was trying to win the third gold medal of the day for his country. Colas, however, had to settle for sixth place.

The silver medal went to Dale Begg-Smith, who was born in Canada but competes for Australia, and the bronze medal was captured by Byron Wilson of the United States.

Canadians Vincent Marquis and Pierre-Alexandre Rosseau finished fourth and fifth.

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