Huskova and Krotov triumph in Moscow
Feb 15, 2020·Freestyle
The fourth FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup event of the season went down in style on Saturday in Moscow, with Hanna Huskova of Belarus back to her winning ways and Pavel Krotov of Russia taking his first World Cup victory since 2012, after a thrilling evening of top-tier aerials action.
The tenth iteration of the aerials World Cup event in Moscow was once again a blast, with world’s best athletes pushing their limits all day long, and a spectacular scaffold venue located at the Sparrow Hills providing a perfect setting, for what was one of the most exciting aerials World Cup competition in a recent history.
On the women’s side of the event, the level of riding was probably the highest that we’ve ever witnessed at the World Cup tour, with multiple athletes throwing down massive triple flips already early in the qualifications, just to keep on stepping things up through two rounds of finals.
At the end of the day it was Hanna Huskova, who managed to outscored all her competitors on Saturday, as she grabbed her first World Cup victory since December 2017, when she topped the podium in Secret Garden (CHN).
On Saturday Huskova was back to her winning ways as the 2018 Olympic gold medallist impressed with her triple jumps - a lay, tuck, full that she put down in qualifications and first round of final, as well as her lay, full, full that she performed in the big final.
And while Huskova couldn’t quite land her final trick without a flaw, coming with a little hand drag on the landing, also her biggest rivals on Saturday struggled to put down clean runs once it was down to just top six athletes. Huskova’s trick difficulty combined with her high air and form scores summed up to 95.46 points, which at the end of the day was just enough to put the Belarusian athlete on top of the podium in Moscow, for her first World Cup victory of the season.
Australia’s Laura Peel finished the day in second place with 91.42 points for her full, tuck, full, while Russia’s Sofia Alekseeva rounded out the women’s podium in third place with 76.56 points for her lay, full in the big final. It was the first World Cup podium for 16-year-old Alekseeva, who made her World Cup debut just over a year ago in Lake Placid (USA).
In the World Cup ranking Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya maintained her leader position, despite an early exit in the competition after crashing in the qualification round. The 2019 World Champion from Deer Valley has 260 points after four events in 2019/20, and just 15 points advantage over second Xu Mengtao of China.
Things were equally exciting over on the men’s side of competition in Moscow, with both favourites for the win on Saturday - China’s Qi Guangpu and Russia’s Maxim Burov struggling with their jumps and not making the cut into the final top-6 showdown.
With the local fan’s favourite Burov out of competition, it was his teammate Pavel Krotov, who stepped things up for the Russian aerials team, coming on top of the men’s podium on Saturday for his career’s second World Cup victory, and his first win in over eight years. Krotov won the qualification round, then came in second place behind Switzerland’s Noe Roth in the first round of finals, just to shine once again in the big final while putting down a massive double full, full, double full for the highest score of the day of 137.50 points.
Second place on the day went to afore-mentioned Noe Roth, who claimed his third top-3 finish of the season, putting down his double full, double full, full for a final score of 129.36 points. With his runners-up position in Moscow, Roth would also jump into the lead on the men’s aerials World Cup rankings with 236 points, and respective 13 and 14 points advantage over second Maxim Burov and third Qi Guangpu.
Pavel Dik of Belarus completed the men’s podium in third place with 112.18 points for his full, full, full, while also scoring a very first top-3 World Cup finish of his career.
The next FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup tour will now travel to Minks (BLR), where another city event is slated to go down on Saturday, February 22.
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