According to the results of the short program for women in the final of the Russian Cup in figure skating, it was difficult to answer unequivocally the question which of the girls is more worthy to take the first place, to which a ticket to the World Championship in Saitame was attached.
Evgenia Medvedeva performed best of all the day before, but her lead over Stanislava Konstantinova was less than one and a half points. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva conceded a two-time world champion a little more than four - exactly as much as she lost due to falling on a triple axel. Given that Medvedev has never skated purely in two programs this season, her pursuers had good chances to take the lead.
Tuktamysheva had to speak before Medvedeva. For an athlete who chronically loses points for components, it was an unpleasant moment. She had to rely only on the technical performance. Just two weeks ago, Tuktamysheva had problems with this - her free program simply “collapsed” at the Dragon Trophy tournament.
However, this time she started rolling with a pure triple axel - for the first time since 2015, she performed it in an arbitrary program. All the following jumps of Tuktamysheva were also performed successfully, she only failed to show the triple toe loop in the cascades - for the first time she had only two turns, and in the second attempt she was under-drawn.
Tuktamysheva received 76.34 points for the technique - more this season was only in the Grand Prix final. But the judges turned out to be incredibly generous with the second mark for the components. If earlier for her program she did not receive more than 70, then this time the jury became generous with 72.64 points. The score for an arbitrary program was 148.98 points, and in the course of two days the figure skater scored 221.19 points - such figures were not submitted by Tuktamysheva in any other tournament this season. Student Alexei Mishin did everything possible to return to the Russian team.
But Medvedev could theoretically gain even more. She had a certain reserve after the short program, and a rather high technical base in an arbitrary - more than Alina Zagitova without a triple axel and quadruple jumps. And, of course, higher components compared with Tuktamyshevoy.
Medvedeva was important to start rolling with a pure triple lutz, her most problematic jump, and she did it, getting a record premium for her career. But then the skater made a mistake on a rare Salchow cascade - rittberger, falling after the execution of the second jump. Interestingly, when Eugene rose from the ice, she smiled broadly - with her psychological state, which the fans were so worried about, everything was fine and the athlete was not at all afraid of making mistakes.
Moreover, further Medvedev has not given reason for harassment by the judges. She performed all the other elements perfectly, including the Axel cascade - sheepskin coat, which she failed to do at the Russian Championship in Saransk.
According to the general feelings, Medvedev and Tuktamyshev were worthy of equal marks - both athletes showed mature skating with the only major mistake in two days. The judges had to be very responsible in deciding which of the two girls to put above. Medvedev won the victory after all - her total score was 222.90 points. She surpassed the best result of the season by 17 points.
Closing competition Stanislav Konstantinov almost immediately lost the chance to catch up with the owner of two silver Olympic medals. She started her ride with a double lutz, after which she pulled the rittberger and flip. As a result, the participant of the last European Championship did not even manage to take the third place, Konstantinova missed Viktoria Vasilyeva ahead.
Now Medvedev has the right to expect that she will be included in the Russian team for the World Cup together with Sofia Samodurova and Alina Zagitova. And although in the Russian Federation of Figure Skating, Russia did not say that the country's Cup final can somehow influence the formation of the team, the coaching staff can take into account the latest results of the figure skaters.