The day before the start of the Russian Figure Skating Championships is not a day of silence, when the fans have to get bored in anticipation of the official starts. This is the day when the last guests arrive in the city, the skaters return to training, find out their starting numbers and give the judges their jumping plans, and journalists begin to cover one of the main figure skating tournaments.
This year the championship of Russia takes place in Krasnoyarsk. Never before has a national championship passed so far from the center of the country in the east. Even in Soviet times, skaters did not come to Siberia and did not play medals there among themselves. Having made a choice in favor of the city on the Yenisei, the Russian Figure Skating Federation killed two birds with one stone - filled up the new and spacious Platinum Arena, which hosted the Winter Universiade in March, and brought the whole color of Russian figure skating to the huge Japanese market, which sold Television rights to broadcast competitions.
In Krasnoyarsk itself, it does not seem much that the Russian figure skating championship will be held in the next three days. A tourist who accidentally arrives will sooner decide that the Universiade has not yet ended here - the image of the Games mascot is sometimes still smiling from the windows of city buses, and many residents continue to wear volunteer jackets and backpacks. Only at the airport are musical ensembles slowly meeting in the atmosphere of figure skating, meeting guests with tunes popular with athletes.
In general, competition doesn’t need advertising because tickets to the Platinum Arena have long been sold out, especially on the days of singles. At the same time, the girls themselves in the main arena will not be available soon. On the first official day of the tournament, they were sent to the Arena North training rink, which was only available to athletes and coaches. Skaters will continue to develop their skills there and on Thursday. Only on Friday, for the first time, many of them will first face empty and then filled with 8-thousand stands.
The participants of the Russian championship have already announced their plans for the competition - the so-called content, which indicates which jumps and elements the skater is ready to perform. As usual, the most interesting to study were the applications of girls. Alexandra Trusova habitually indicated five quadruple jumps in the free program, and also added a triple axel to the short one. So far, she has not been able to fulfill all these elements in some competitions. The current champion of the country, Anna Shcherbakova, also did not give up what she had already tried to show in the Grand Prix finals, and added a quadruple flip to her four lutz.
Very surprised fans and journalists Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. In the last weeks before the Russian championship, there was only talk that she had learned a quadruple sheepskin coat and was now ready to present it to her rivals. But the 23-year-old skater did not include this jump in her preliminary plan for the competition and even reduced the number of triple axels in the free program to one.
Unlike Alena Kostornaya, who arrived in Krasnoyarsk in the status of world record holder. The fact that a student of Eteri Tutberidze arrived at the competition has already become an event. There were rumors that the skater refused to participate in the Russian championship, but they were quickly dispelled. The FFKKR General Director Alexander Kogan commented on this information at a press conference.
“Sometimes we are surprised to learn different news from the media. For example, that Alena Kostornaya is not going to the championship of Russia, although at that moment she was already flying in an airplane, ”Kogan said before the start of the competition.
The absence of Kostornaya would raise a difficult topic for Russian figure skating - whether athletes can count on getting into the national team if they miss the national championship. A year ago, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva found herself in a similar situation, who, as a result, was unable to go to either the European Championship or the World Championship. Head of the FFKKR Alexander Gorshkov recalled that exceptions are always possible, but this year all the main skaters are in order, and the selection procedure will be as transparent as possible.
“We try to adhere as much as possible to the sporting principle in the formation of the team. Our principles suggest that in certain cases the third number can be determined on the recommendation of the coaching council, and then the executive committee will consider it. As a rule, we trust specialists who work on the board. We are all living people, athletes too, illnesses and injuries happen. When some clear leader has gone through the entire first half of the season and for some reason cannot take part in the Russian championship, then the coaching council considers his candidacy. We do not have such assumptions so far, so we adhere to the sporting principle, ”Gorshkov said at a press conference.
The President of the Federation at the same time noted that the final composition for the European Championship will be announced on December 29, the day after the end of the competition.
The pre-competition day ended with a ceremonial draw in the congress hall of the Siberian Federal University. For athletes, this is usually an occasion to go out in beautiful outfits without putting on skates. Only Alexander Trusov did not comply with the dress code. She came to the event in jeans and sneakers, holding in her hands her beloved dog Tina.
The skaters arrived at the event in turn, and someone was lucky enough to cross with Tatyana Tarasova and get parting words from her - they were heard by Dmitry Kozlovsky and really so in need of encouragement Sofya Samodurova. A little later, Alyona Kostornaya and Anna Shcherbakova appeared, who did not leave one another from each other.
The draw at the championships of Russia is carried out blindly, and therefore there can be a variety of surprises, when the favorites can get any starting number, and not just in the strongest workout.
Alexander Samarin was not lucky with a rather early starting number - he will have to open the second group. Dmitry Aliyev will complete the competition in the short program. At the poles were two strongest dance couples - Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov will perform under the third number, and Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin will show the last but one rhythm dance.
In pair skating, all the strongest duets were distributed evenly among the warm-ups, and the girls experienced a noticeable bias in favor of the first - Alexander Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who opened the competition, fell into it, and Alena Kostornaya will perform immediately in the next group. Closing the women's short program on Friday will be Evgenia Medvedeva.