Men

The men's tournament in the final of the Russian Cup presented a real sensation, which can become a headache for the Russian Figure Skating Federation.

The victory was won by the current champion of the country among juniors Yevgeny Semenenko, who retained the leadership after the first day.

Now he has the right to count on tickets to the World Championship along with Mikhail Kolyada.

Those skaters who initially applied for a place in the national team did not use the second chance in the free program.

Dmitry Aliev was the first to go out on the ice and immediately received complaints from the judges for his quadruple lutz, where they saw a slight under-rotation.

It was already difficult not to notice the next mistake of the European champion - instead of the expected quadruple sheepskin coat, we got a jump in three turns.

Aliyev began to urgently redraw the program, hoping to still fulfill the ill-fated element, but turned around again only three times.

The jump from the protocol had to be crossed out - this was already his third triple toe loop for hire.

As compensation, the judges gave Aliyev generous components, although they regretted the high levels on the spins and the track.

The final score was inexpressive 254.79 points - with it, even without taking into account the fact that they will be judged harder at the World Championships, it will be difficult to fight for the third quota for the country at the Olympics.

At the same time, Aliev at least avoided falls, which could not be said about the prize-winners of the Russian championship Makar Ignatov and Mark Kondratyuk.

They both made one mistake after another.

Suffice it to say that for two they received allowances for only five jumping elements out of 14. Of course, their total marks also left much to be desired and did not imply any struggle for a ticket to Stockholm.

But the winner of the Russian Cup final could not perform as perfectly as the day before.

One quadruple Semenenko's sheepskin coat turned out to be double, and in the second half of the program he fell very offensively on a cascade of flip, oiler and salchow.

Its components were also not high enough.

For the free program, Semenenko scored almost two points less than Aliyev, but due to the high-quality short skating, he remained the first.

Between him and the European champion was also Peter Gumennik, who announced only one quadruple jump and fell from a triple axel.

Couples

The pair competitions were held without surprises.

Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov showed that they are completely ready not only to compete in the World Championship, but also to fight for medals.

They began their rental to Queen's music with a beautiful oiler cascade of two salchows - the judges gave it more than ten points, which no couple had achieved at official competitions.

The jumps were followed by an excellent twist, throwing a triple lutz and support, which was just a little short of the grandmaster's ten.

Tamara Moskvina's students did not do without mistakes - Mishina made a mistake on a triple sheepskin coat, and for a todes the couple received only the third level.

In total, they scored 234.48 points and for the third time this season exceeded the best result of their classmates Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky.

Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin, whose debut at the World Championships is clearly delayed, tried to leave a good impression of themselves.

Their rental turned out to be just as difficult technically, and it was a shame that he did not avoid minor flaws - the judges did not see a clear edge on a triple flip, which is rare for couples, lowered two levels per todes and expressed unanimity about the rittberger throw.

Because of this, the base rental cost was slightly lower than that of Mishina and Gallyamov, but the skaters never received a deduction for elements.

The final score of Pavlyuchenko and Khodykin was 216.93 points and allowed them to take second place in the competition.

Women

Competitions for women presented several events at once, which will be discussed by figure skating fans for a long time.

The first of them was the premiere of the free skate of Alena Kostornaya.

In her last attempt to qualify for the World Championship, she performed much more confidently than the day before, but still, the European champion did not endure until the end of the program.

She did not twist the last three jumps and on the last sequence of steps did not show everything that she was capable of.

The judges appreciated her efforts due to the components, but at the end of two days Kostornaya received only 210.2 points - much less than at the beginning of the season.

Following her, Maya Khromykh began to surprise both fans and referees.

From the student Eteri Tutberidze has long been expected when she will begin to perform quadruple jumps, and this happened in the final of the Russian Cup.

Moreover, she showed not only a sheepskin coat in four turns, but also immediately salchow - two different quads have so far been landed only by Alexander Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova.

It is gratifying that the 14-year-old figure skater did not rely only on these jumps, but was stable throughout the rental, not allowing any oversights.

She still has to learn how to squeeze the maximum out of her technical base, but the start has already been made for the Lamers - she scored 162.19 points for free skating and 235.96 points in total.

For Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, this meant that she was unlikely to compete for the medal of the Russian Cup final, but her task was completely different - to remain the best among older athletes.

The 2015 world champion coped with this.

She brilliantly performed a triple axel in a cascade with a double sheepskin coat and only made a step-out on her signature jump in solo.

At the same time, Tuktamysheva did not count the last spin, but for her it was no longer important.

Six full years later - and some skaters have even shorter careers - she could go to her second world championship.

And it is also worth noting that the judges rated Tuktamysheva's components incredibly generously, so at the end of the day she even became the best in this indicator.

The next speaker was Daria Usacheva.

Each time this student Eteri Tutberidze surprises with how, without ultra-si elements, she fights with more technically advanced rivals.

Her secret lies in stability - Usacheva not only rarely falls, but also does not allow the judges to lower her mark for any of the simplest elements.

As a result, the athlete, whose most difficult cascade is lutz - oiler - salchow, bypassed Tuktamysheva in the total score - 229.71 points against 226.01.

The future prima of world figure skating Kamila Valieva finished the singles tournament.

Between the Channel One Cup and the Russian Cup final, she managed to learn the quadruple salchow, and the free program under the Bolero was an ideal platform to show it to the general public.

But the young skater could not repeat the achievement of the Lame skaters - the new element ended in a fall.

Two quadruple sheepskin coats did not work out cleanly either.

Of the ultra-si jumps, Valieva was able to show only a triple axel, and he received an incredible markup of 3.84 points - so he began to cost even more than Tuktamysheva's cascade with a double sheepskin coat.

Due to two falls, Valieva became only third in the free program, but still retained first place and won.