Ukraine’s Dmytro Kotovskyi takes bronze at first stage of Ski Acrobatics World Cup

DMYTRO KOTOVSKYI. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Ukraine has won its first medal of the Ski Acrobatics World Cup season. 22-year-old Dmytro Kotovskyi won the bronze medal at the competition’s stage held in Ruka, Finland.

Source: Suspilne Sport

Details: Ukraine approached the start of the Ski Acrobatics World Cup after a highly productive previous season in 2022/23. Ukrainian athletes won six medals at the World Cup and two more at the World Championships.

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Kotovskyi was among the main medallists of the previous season. The 22-year-old ski acrobat won two gold medals and, thanks to this result, fought for the Crystal Globe, the main prize, until the last stage, eventually losing to Swiss Pirmin Werner.

Kotovskyi was also included in the Ukrainian national team for the first stage of the Ski Acrobatics World Cup and immediately managed to win the award.

Competitions in men’s and women’s ski acrobatics consisted of three parts: qualification, final (top 12 competitors) and super final (top 6). At each stage of the competition, the athletes had one attempt to show their results.

In the men’s tournament, Ukraine was represented by six ski acrobats at once: Dmytro Kotovskyi, Oleksandr Okipniuk, Volodymyr Kushnir, Zakhar Maksymchuk, Yan Havriuk and Maksym Kuznietsov competed for the final. Anhelina Brykina and 16-year-old Diana Yablonska, a World Cup debutant, took part in the women’s event.

Only Kotovskyi managed to qualify for the final among all Ukrainians. However, he did so with the third best score of 113.72 points, just like Werner.

Kotovskyi also managed to qualify for the superfinal of the competition, receiving an even higher score for his jump (116.37 points), although he again lost to two athletes, Pirmin Werner and American Christopher Lillis.

Kotovskyi continued his progress in terms of points in his final attempt, scoring 117.00 points. However, this jump was not enough for the gold medal: Werner was ahead of the Ukrainian with a score of 119.00 points, and the Chinese Qi Guangpu scored 119.91 points.

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