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Jakara Anthony has clinched a record-breaking 12th triumph of her all-conquering moguls season, and was left humbled in Kazakhstan at breaking the record of her idol in the process.
On another fine day for Australia's freestyle skiers in Almaty on Friday, Matt Graham also won bronze in the equivalent men's event.
Olympic champ Anthony completed her final singles World Cup run of the year in the same dominant fashion that she's displayed all winter on the circuit in Europe and North America.
The 25-year-old freestyle skier once again proved in a league of her own with her seventh victory out of just eight singles format World Cup events to seal her latest Crystal Globe discipline triumph.
Having also won five dual moguls events, her 12th win of the 2023-24 campaign in both disciplines meant she broke American star Hannah Kearney's record of most wins in a season.
"Now it's a done deal, I can be a little more excited about it," explained Anthony, who had been homing in on the landmark set by 2010 Olympic champion and triple world champ Kearney.
"I'm so stoked. I grew up watching Hannah ski and idolising her, so going one better is not something I could ever have imagined doing.
"So, man, it's pretty awesome to be leaving that out."
As so often this season, Anthony delivered the best turns and jumps and negotiated the course quickest as she took victory in Almaty with 82.74 points, a yawning 6.57 ahead of American Alli Macuga and 8.90 ahead of another US rival Hannah Soar.
It meant that Anthony finished on a total of 720 points for the season, 220 points clear of American runner-up Jaelin Kauf, with her only singles defeat coming at the US resort of Deer Valley at the start of February.
Her amazing season is not quite done yet, though, as she has the chance to add title number 13 in Saturday's dual moguls before one last dual event on the circuit in Valmalenco, Italy, next week.
Later, the 29-year-old Graham put in his best run of the season (80.81) to finish third in the men's event behind Canadian great Mikael Kingsbury (84.89), who took the 88th title of his matchless career.
But Kingsbury lost out in the battle for the season's crystal globe in the singles discipline to Japan's runner-up, Ikuma Horishima (83.48).
AAP
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