The first medals of the 2024 Russian Figure Skating Championships were contested by dancers. The third title in their careers was won by Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Egor Bazin took silver, and Irina Khavronina and David Narizhny snatched bronze.
In the first two warm-ups, three skates stood out. First of all, the tango of Daria Savkina and Alexander Vakhnov, which could have been beautiful if not for the fall of both skaters from the support. Such mistakes in dancing do not happen often, and on this day it was the only one, which is why it was memorable.
An expressive and uninhibited dance was demonstrated by Sofia Tyutyunina and Matvey Grachev, who joined the pair only in mid-September. In a short time, the skaters managed to find an almost perfect understanding, which allowed them to take seventh place at the national championships. Ekaterina Mironova and Evgeny Ustenko also deserve special mention. The duo from St. Petersburg, where dancing is far from being a core type of figure skating, managed to keep the sixth place, won after the first day of the competition, although they slightly blurred the rental. The guys were somewhat constrained, which affected the overall impression of the ride, and also received a penalty point for too much support.
In the final warm-up, five pairs took to the ice, and from the very first performance it became clear that this was a completely different league. Irina Khavronina and David Narizhny, who held the first joint championship of the country, gave a ride of life and fully rehabilitated themselves for an unfortunate mistake on twizzles in the rhythm dance. As for the skaters, it was absolutely impossible to say that they had been skating together for less than a year. From the last stage of the Grand Prix, Irina and David perfected the free dance almost perfectly – they skated heartily in terms of artistry and technical quality, and small rough edges were noticeable only on the final choreographic track. Denis Samokhin's wards received 122.97 points for their skate and, of course, topped the standings.
They were followed by Elizaveta Shanaeva and Pavel Drozd, but against the background of competitors, the representatives of Alexander Zhulin's group did not look too bright. As Tatyana Tarasova noted, there was no history in their skating, but only a set of elements. In addition, the discrepancy between the music and the movements and the unfilled segments of the program were often striking. All this, of course, did not go unnoticed by the judges, who rated the performance of the duet at 119.47 points. In terms of the sum of the two programs, Shanaeva and Drozd also lost to Khavronina and Narizhny, which automatically crossed them out of the list of contenders for medals.
The leaders of the senior national championship Sofia Leontyeva and Daniil Gorelkin also failed to move, although according to the results of the rhythm dance they had a head start of 1.5 points. The young pupils of Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin tried to perform their production of "Snow White and the Huntsman" as cleanly as possible, but due to excessive accuracy, they lost a lot of speed. As a result, they lost to both pairs of rivals and after their skate, when there were two performances left, they took the third intermediate place.
There were high expectations from Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Yegor Bazin, but the reigning champions of the country could not do without mistakes. They started the performance with a spectacular series of spins, which delighted Tarasova, performed twizzles at excellent speed, but in the second part of the program, her partner broke part of the spin. This mistake, not even noticeable to the average viewer, cost the athletes at least two points. As a result, they also lost the free skate to Khavronina and Narizhny, but the margin of the first day was enough for them to reach the overall second position. The athletes were satisfied with their performance, despite the shortcoming.
"There was a blot that is noticeable only to us. Even the coaches asked: "Was it or wasn't it?" It didn't spoil the impression, I'm happy with myself, with my partner. Congratulations to everyone with the end of the Hunger Games," Khudaiberdiyeva told reporters.
The dancers' performance was closed by the main favorites – Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, for whom this was already the tenth in their long career. As Zhulin rightly noted after the competition, this pair is on a completely different level from all the others in the country, as if they are from another planet. Their skating was flawless: complex supports with interesting runs, absolutely synchronized twizzles, intense spins and almost no empty seats in the program to catch your breath.
The judges' scores confirmed that there is still an abyss between the now three-time champions of the country and other Russian couples. Alexandra and Ivan received 130.82 points for the free skate, and a total of 217.72 points for the two programs.
Commenting on her return to the sport after a break due to the birth of a child, Stepanova noted that this season was the most memorable in her and her partner's career. According to her, with the transition to Zhulin, their couple changed.
"It seems to me that we have a lightness and emancipation. In dance, it is very important to perform programs with such ease, we are starting to have it, we will develop in this direction," the figure skater said at a press conference.