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Ukrainian athlete Oleksandr Okipnyuk has won a stage of the Freestyle Skiing World Cup, becoming only the third Ukrainian in history to achieve this feat.
The first event of the new season took place in Ruka, Finland. In the final following qualifications, Okipnyuk placed sixth with 115.84 points, advancing to the superfinal, while fellow Ukrainian Dmytro Kotovskyi finished seventh with 109.29 points and missed the medal round.
In the superfinal, Okipnyuk performed a jump with a difficulty coefficient of 5.1, scoring 130.56 points. He secured a stunning victory, beating Swiss competitor Pirmin Werner by more than 20 points and setting a personal career record.
Previously, only Kotovskyi, with two victories, and Olympic champion Oleksandr Abramenko, with five wins, had won World Cup stages for Ukraine in freestyle skiing.
