The 2019 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships mixed aerials bronze medallist, who had finished third three times before but never won, triumphed with a score of 128.96 points.

He finished ahead of China’s Wang Xindi, and Switzerland’s Noe Roth on a giant artificial ramp built just outside the Russian capital. 

Xindi, who beat Nikitin into silver at the World Championships earlier this month, could not match the feat today, instead finishing behind the Russian with 123.08 points.

Roth, meanwhile, sealed the first World Cup podium of his career with a final score of 119.91 points. 

In the women’s event Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya, the newly crowned aerials world champion from Belarus, sealed another win with 105.93 points.

That score saw her finish ahead of Australia’s Laura Peel, who took second with 97.64 points, and the current World Cup leader Mengtao Xu, who came third with 89.88.

The next aerials World Cup is due to go ahead in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 23 before the season is scheduled to end in China on Shimao Lotus Mountain on March 2 and 3.