News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) - Belarus’ aerial skier Anton Kushnir has won the gold medal at the third FIS Freestyle World Cup held in Deer Valley, the U.S. Another Belarusian, 2010 Olympic champion Alexei Grishin, has claimed bronze in the same event, BelTA has learnt.

This is a second medal for Anton Kushnir during this season. Earlier he had won silver at FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup 1 in Beida Lake (China). Alexei Grishin has secured the first podium finish of the season. He came in 6th and 15th at the two pervious World Cups.

Anton Kushnir earned 127.15 points and won gold while another Belarus’ aerial skier Alexei Grishin finished on 112.18 points to claim bronze. It was Qi Guangpu breaking up the all-Belarus podium. World Cup 3 was held according to the rules which will be in effect at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Six best sportsmen advanced to the final in line with their results in the first attempt, while six other participants of the final were decided in the second attempt. The 12 men then competed for a place in the top eight. The next stage featured only four strongest aerial skiers.

Other Belarusians did not qualify for the super final. Maksim Gustik was 16th (111.06), Dmitry Dashchinsky took 20th place (100.00), Stanislav Gladchenko came in 24th (92.35) and Denis Osipov was 30th (79.65).

In the women’s aerial event Belarus’ Alla Tsuper was 9th (80.95), while another Belarusian Olga Kapustina was 32nd (43.79) and did not complete the qualification. The all-China podium featured Cheng Shuang (91.65), Zhang Xin (88.47) and Xu Mengtao (79.49).

Next week aerial skiers will take part in two World Cups due in Canada’s Val St. Come and Lake Placid (USA). The season will conclude after the Sochi Olympics 2014.