Two world records and three quadruple jumps: figure skater Trusova won her first adult tournament

Trusova World Records

One of the main expectations of figure skating fans from the new season was associated with two-time world champion among juniors Alexandra Trusova. For the third year now, she has boldly performed the most difficult elements in women's skating - quadruple jumps, and at once both a sheepskin coat and a lutz. All this time, the 15-year-old skater has demonstrated her skills either at youth competitions or at the Russian championship, but from this season she can perform at an adult level.

At open rentals in Moscow, Trusova confirmed that she still got the four jumps just as easily and naturally, after which she could go to her debut competition. Eteri Tutberidze, a student, chose the Nepela Memorial tournament in Slovakia, which was also attended by Stanislava Konstantinova, Maria Sotskova, Dmitry Aliev, Alexander Samarin and almost the entire dance team of Russia.

The short program performed by Trusova to music from Per Gunt left a feeling of understatement - four jumps in it could not be performed according to the rules of the International Skating Union. But even without them, the figure skater gave a maximum in technical terms, purely performing the cascade of Lutz - Rittberger in the second half. At the same time, like Anna Shcherbakova, she showed a trick with changing dresses during rotation. The judges, however, did not allocate Trusova compared to the rest of the adult participants in terms of components, and she received 74.91 points - about the same as for her last year's junior rentals.

But in the free program of Trusov in the image of the heroine of “Game of Thrones” was unstoppable. Four lutz, four sheepskin coats in cascade and one more in solo, more than a minute after the first step on the ice - such a “killer” for the rivals turned out to be a rental. Absolutely perfect rental still did not work. Fatigue sooner or later had to affect the body of a 15-year-old athlete, and she doubled the Rittberger in the cascade, although she was able to then perform the rest of the jumps with the cantilever.

In any case, the judges could not fail to set record marks, and the question was only how much Trusova would rewrite the achievements of her friend Alina Zagitova, who had not yet begun the competition season. The margin of the recent junior turned out to be minimal, but still it was fixed. She earned 163.78 points for a free program and 238.69 points for the sum of two days. At the first adult start, a native of Ryazan broke two world records, and with a clear prospect of earning even more at other starts, when the judges will already know her better.

If we compare these results with what other girls showed a week earlier, then Trusova would have won a landslide victory over them. Rika Kihira with her triple axel managed to earn 224.16 points, and Anna Shcherbakova, thanks to the fourth lutz, was the leader of the season in the free program with 150.47 points.

The rest of the Russians did not start the season. And Konstantinova, who first included the wrong music in the short program, and Sotskova fell so often that there was no talk of fighting either Trusova or other skaters. Suffice it to say that their total estimates were lower than the result of Trusova for only one arbitrary rental.

Slow return of men

Nepela Memorial was also a show for two European vice-champions from Russia - Dmitry Aliyev and Alexander Samarin. True, the fans have already seen Yevgeny Rukavitsyn’s pupil at the Lombardia Trophy, so his performance in Slovakia was something to compare.

At first, it seemed that Aliyev was able to make an effort on himself and forget the unsuccessful last season, which unsettled him. He began a short program on the theme of the Mozart rock opera with a brilliant performance of the fourth lutz, and even in a cascade with a triple toe loop - few in the world consistently perform this jump even in solo. Aliyev performed a quadruple sheepskin coat at the courage, although one of the judges wanted to give a negative rating for him. The 20-year-old Russian has a short rental rating of 101.49 points - according to the new rules, only Yuzuru Hanyu, Syoma Uno and Nathan Chen scored more, and so far no one has been awarded this season.

But Aliyev failed to repeat his success in the free program. Instead of a quadruple lutz, it turned out to be triple, and both sheepskin coats ended in landings on anything, but not on their feet. In addition, the triple axel was not completed, and the program for rock processing The Sound of Silence, which was unusual for Aliyev, left a double impression.

For hire, the Russian scored less than the Universiade champion Matteo Rizzo, but retained the leadership in terms of total points, and added almost six points to the result shown in Italy - 255.32. In general, the bright glimpses demonstrated by Aliyev outweighed the mistakes that can be attributed to the beginning of the season, which leaves hope for his return to the former level.

For last year’s leader of the Russian national team Samarin, this level is still unattainable. In the short program, he was unable to cleanly land either Lutz or a flip in four turns. Arbitrary, although it began with one successful attempt, the judges were not further inclined to appreciate any of the elements after the “butterfly” on the lutz and the fall on the axel. Samarin’s return to the ice was rated 218.45 points, and this is much lower than several Russian juniors demonstrated at their competitions this season.