Rieiherd and Cox enjoy second career victories at icy Lake Placid

The Kazakh skier, who had not climbed the top step of the podium since March 2008, reaped the reward of his risky runs to finish with a score of 82.20.

The 28-year-old threw an off-axis 1080 off the first jump facing the steep, dark and icy landing but managed to maintain his momentum as he earned the highest jumping and turning scores of the big final.

Second went to France's Ben Cavet with 80.73 for his second podium of the season while American Bradley Wilson posted 78.08 for third.

Reiherd overtook Mikael Kingsbury atop the World Cup leaderboard after the Canadian had an uncharacteristic blowout in his big final run to finish sixth to lose the yellow bib for the first time since the 2013/2014 season.

"My first win was in 2008," said Rieherd. "Nine years ago. I felt like this was a strong course, and I had to ski strong on it. My first jump went well, my second jump was good, and I had a fast time. Conditions were difficult but I didn't make any mistakes and it was good for me."

In the women's competition, World Cup leader Britteny Cox made it back-to-back World Cup victories after a composed performance.

Coming out of qualification in top spot, Cox never looked back, laying down a near-perfect run in the big final to score 75.27 and her second career win ahead of 18-year-old French skier Perrine Laffont and America's Morgan Schild.

Sportsbeat 2017