This year, the Freestyle World Cup is to begin on December 18th in Chinese Beida Lake. Accordingly, each skier is training thoroughly, with most of the Europeans polishing their programmes at the famous Finish base in Ruka. The latter has been hosting the first events of the World Cup rounds, featuring freestyle skiing athletes from Switzerland, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Australia.
Some countries failed to send full teams, with Alexey Grishin, Dmitry Dashchinsky and Alla Tsuper absent from the Belarusian squad. However, Anton (who won last year’s Small and Big Crystal Globes) was a true success, testing his readiness for the World Cup. On the first day of the competition, he considerably outstripped his rivals, jumping quite brilliantly. His major opponents — Enver Ablaev of Ukraine and Renato Ulrich of Switzerland — had to be satisfied with second and third place respectively.
In the second World Cup round, Kushnir also secured a convincing victory, performing an even more complex programme. Renato Ulrich came second and Denis Osipov claimed bronze. In the women’s tournament, Belarus’ Anna Guskova, 18, took bronze during the second round.
