The schedule of the first tournaments is arranged quite conveniently for avid figure skating enthusiasts. At night, you can see how Evgeny Medvedev and Rick Kikhira fight each other, and in the afternoon watch the rentals of Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Sofia Samodurova, as well as the debut at the adult level of Russian champion Anna Shcherbakova. All three of these days performed in Italy at the Lombardia Trophy, which is part of the Challenger series.
Participants of these competitions from Russia were united by the fact that all of them had recently performed at the full stands of the Luzhniki stadium at the open rents of the national team. Although no grades were made there, experienced Tuktamysheva came out of this trinity as an informal winner. She performed the triple axel cleanly three times, although even one successful attempt is a success for the skater. Shcherbakova tried to answer with the four Lutz, but fell. Samodurova quite rarely pleased herself with pure jumps.
But still it was too early to draw conclusions on these starts. Medvedev was able to get together and quite successfully perform at the Autumn International Classic, although she had to fly much longer from Moscow to Canada. In Bergamo, three girls claiming to be in the Russian national team all had to start from scratch.
The first to enter the ice in the short program was Tuktamysheva. The triple axel expected in her performance did not work out perfectly. After landing, the skater continued to spin by inertia and barely stayed on her feet. The judges did not like this, and the jump went to minus. But for Tuktamysheva, it was much more important that she successfully completed a new cascade of flip - sheepskin coat and final lutz. As a result, under the new song Oblivion, the choice of which fell just a few days ago, the Russian woman scored 73.66 points.
Almost immediately after that, the current champion of Russia went on the ice. Anna Shcherbakova performed under the soundtrack of "Perfumer" and was not able to subdue the judges with her program. They found that the 15-year-old skater was short on a rittberger in a cascade with a lutz and allowed to score a little more than 30 points for the components. The reaction of the athlete and her choreographer Daniil Gleichenhaus, who were waiting for estimates for several minutes, was eloquent. They barely understood why the rental was rated at only 67.73 points.
In the end, between the two Russian women, Korean Yu Young was able to settle down, who is known for winning the championship of her country for the first time at the age of 11. Yu included a triple axel in her program, but scored for it even less than Tuktamysheva. Samodurova by that time had already acted and completely disappointed - the European champion scored only 53.82 points due to a fall on the flip and an untwisted sheepskin coat.
On the second day, the youngest student of Alexei Mishin was able to get together and performed much better under the tango from the musical “Moulin Rouge!” However, the judges still showed integrity and awarded Samodurov a score of 125.83 points, which did not leave a chance to get into the top three. Last season, she scored so little here in Bergamo.
Of the leaders of the competition, Yu Young showed the first free program. Again she tried to present a triple axel as a trump card, but now she stumbled on a touchdown and again received a small fine. Otherwise, its rental was technically not inferior to peers, but the judges did not please the art performance to the music from the musical “Evita” performed by Madonna. In total, the Korean woman barely scored more than 200 points.
Next on the ice was Anna Shcherbakova, who too could have questions for the judges. But all their claims fell away when the champion of the country performed the quadruple Lutz. This was the first time that the most expensive and most difficult jump for women was performed at adult competitions. Before her, only Elizabeth Tursynbaeva was able to fulfill the quadruple salchow.
She was not limited to Luther Shcherbakova - the rest of her program was also quite complicated, with a cascade of flip - rittberger and two more cascades in the second half of the program, in which the skater was no longer recognizable. Before moving on to the “Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky, Shcherbakova changed the color of her dress right during rotation. As a result, she scored 150.47 points for a free program, setting a personal record. The total mark did not become the highest in his career - Shcherbakova scored more than 218.20 points at the last World Cup.
Tuktamysheva had a great chance to answer the quadruple lutz with her triple axels, one of which she now performs in cascade. But in a competitive mode, it was not easy for the 22-year-old skater to complete her signature jumps. Once again, it was spun up upon landing, so that the double cascade, if desired, could be considered a separate jump. The solo axel did not cause any complaints, but Tuktamysheva did not receive large dividends from it either. The rest of the unusual version of Caravan went quietly, but she had nothing to win back the gap from Shcherbakova. Student Mishina even slightly lost to the debutant in components and as a result scored 140.72 points for a free program and 214.38 points in total.
Rare viewers at the Lombardia Trophy witnessed the first victory of Eteri Tutberidze Kindergarten. Now it is already possible to precisely state that Shcherbakova with her officially registered four-member Lutz will be the favorite of the new season. Her transition to the adult level, at which she has already beaten two European champions, took place.