Sculptors from Russia, Mexico and Japan grabbed medals from the Moscow leg of Russia's first international ice sculpture contest that concluded Thursday.

Sergey Korolkov from Russia's Ural Autonomous Okrug of Yamalo-Nenets won the first prize with his work "Goddesses of Sun and Moon," which he said was inspired by the ancient myth of goddesses saving the world.

The champion said he had worked three days from 10:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. to finish the piece.

Some 11 sculptors from countries and regions including Russia, Mexico, Japan and Bulgaria took part in the four-day event started on Monday. Moscow's freezing temperature provided ideal conditions for their ice-made artwork.

The contest was part of the Ice Sculpture Festival "in memory of Russian space exploration." About 100 pieces of space-related sculptures were presented by local artists.

Influenced by oriental culture, tiger images could be seen among those ice carvings as the year 2010 is the year of tiger.

A lot of Muscovites went to enjoy the ice sculptures in a world of ice and snow as they observed the New Year holidays from Jan. 1to Jan. 10.