The freestyle world championship continues in Alma-Ata.
On Wednesday, representatives of the most developed discipline in Russia - ski acrobatics - began to compete for medals.
Following the results of individual competitions, the team's piggy bank was replenished with three more medals, including a gold one - it was won by Maxim Burov, who became a two-time world champion.
We can safely say that the victory of the 22-year-old native of Yaroslavl literally suggested itself.
This season Burov won five consecutive World Cup stages, which no other representative of this sport has ever achieved.
He could well have extended this streak, but together with the entire national team, he missed the competition in the United States.
Other Russians tried to keep up with the leader of the national team - Stanislav Nikitin and Pavel Krotov won two silver medals each, and Burov's older brother Ilya took bronze once.
However, in Kazakhstan, Burov Jr. found it difficult to defend the world title.
Already by the results of the qualification, it was clear that the opponents were very serious.
For his jump, the Russian received 117.26 points and went to the final with only the sixth result.
Moreover, in the second round of selection, the result of the favorite was surpassed by his brother and American Christopher Lillis.
As a result, five athletes scored more than 120 points.
The 12 best athletes advanced to the final stage, where, following the results of two attempts, six participants in the super final were determined.
At this stage, the athletes focused on performing not the most difficult, but reliable jumps for which they could get close to ideal grades.
This led to the fact that the density of the results became simply fantastic - the first six fit in less than three points.
For comparison, two years ago the Swiss Noe Roth at this stage was losing more than ten points to Maxim Burov and still ended up in the superfinal.
All three Russians (brothers Burov and Krotov) managed to reach the superfinal from the intermediate first three places.
But other potential medal contenders were less fortunate - Roth was left out of the superfinal with an excellent jump of 119 points, and the Olympic champion of Pyeongchang, Ukrainian Alexander Abramenko, only closed the top ten.
In the super final, the Russians were in for another surprise.
Lillis, who managed only once during the season to reach the silver medal at the World Cup stages, decided to go all-in and announced a triple somersault with five pirouettes.
The risk paid off - the American cleanly performed this most difficult jump and scored an incredible 133.5 points for it.
During the season, none of the men even came close to this result.
Russian athletes initially planned to show simpler jumps, and they had to urgently change their choice and take an example from Lillis.
Burov Sr. did not succeed - the bronze medalist of the Olympic Games did not have enough height to prepare for landing, and he fell so hard that his skis fell off him.
Krotov's attempt was successful, but the judges still rated it only 127.5 points.
Although the athlete himself was dissatisfied with the results, he secured his first world championship medal.
Finally, the last attempt was made by Burov Jr.
He performed the jump perfectly and managed to beat Lillis by one and a half points.
The 22-year-old Russian became the fourth athlete to win two world championships.
Not a single representative of this sport has yet achieved three.
“I am very happy, very satisfied.
It was not easy for me.
It was very exciting, but I did it and showed a good result.
Being the world champion is very cool.
Thanks to all the athletes and organizers who hosted this tournament, ”Burov said immediately after the victory.
Women's competitions also brought a medal to the piggy bank of the Russian national team.
Lyubov Nikitina, while still in qualification, performed a jump, for which she received more than decent 92.35 points.
She lost only to Australian Daniel Scott and confirmed that she is ready to defend the title of vice-champion of the world.
In the final, however, she had to face some difficulties.
Nikitina did not manage to land cleanly, and because of this, she was unable to score more than 85 points.
The Russian woman either got into the top six, then dropped out of it, but in the end she still reached the superfinal.
On the third attempt, she nevertheless performed a pure jump with two screws, for which she received 94.47 points - more than for her silver attempt at the 2019 World Cup.
But the level of rivals this time turned out to be higher than at the last world championship.
Australian Laura Peel and American Ashley Caldwell announced the jump with a much higher difficulty factor than Nikitina had.
Although the judges rated their attempts worse than those of the Russians, in the end they took first and second places, and the Yaroslavl athlete was content with bronze.
On March 11, the ski acrobatics competitions at the World Championships will continue.
Athletes will compete for medals in a team tournament, where the country must be represented by two men and one girl.
Taking into account the fact that a strong Chinese team did not come to Alma-Ata, for the Russians any result other than victory will be a big disappointment.