Shcherbakova and Tuktamysheva out of the top three, Aliyev - the second: how the Russians skated a short program on Skate America

Problems with the technique of the Russians

In Las Vegas, began the stage of the Grand Prix in figure skating - Skate America. The first competitions of the season of this season are full of variety of participants in each discipline, but traditionally the women's tournament has attracted the most attention. Fierce rivalry promised to unfold for the main award, and among the favorites were Russians Anna Shcherbakova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. Their confrontation was of particular interest, because not only success in the competitions was at stake, but also an advantage in the struggle for a ticket to the national team. The ice hostess Brad Tennell, Japanese Kaori Sakamoto and another Russian woman Stanislav Konstantinov were to impose a fight on them.

Before the start of the Grand Prix, many experts suggested that if there were similar elements in several skaters at once, the decisive factor would be the purity of their performance. Unfortunately, the Russians did not manage to cope with this task in the short program.

Shcherbakova was the first to enter the ice. The debutant of adult competitions confidently began the performance, purely performing a double axel. However, then several serious errors followed at once, including a triple lutz - a triple rittberger in the cascade - and a fall on the step track that followed it. All this cost her significant loss of points and non-inclusion in the preliminary three leaders.

Tuktamysheva’s bet on a simpler, but at the same time pure performance also did not work to the full extent. The 2015 World Champion made an offensive mistake on the usual cascade of two triple sheepskin coats and did not twist the lutz in three turns. The perfectly executed triple axel with a difficult approach did not save the Russian woman from underestimating the marks for the equipment.

“The rental was absolutely terrible. I did everything through strength, apparently, the jetlag affected. At the same time, I skated pretty well during training, ”Sport24 quotes Tuktamysheva.

Problems with the technical component also arose for Stanislava Konstantinova. She twisted a triple sheepskin coat, and then fell on a flip approach. The Russian woman left the rink, almost crying, realizing that the chances of getting into the top three are almost lost.

The mistakes of the Russians were best used by Tennell. She received 75.10 points, thereby setting a personal record in the short program. The second place went to Japanese Kaori Sakamoto, the third - to her compatriot Wakaba Higuchi. With 67.60 points, Shcherbakova became fourth, Tuktamysheva was located a line below, and Konstantinova was in 11th position.

Aliyev’s Confidence

If Tenell, Sakamoto and Higuchi were noted by pure performances in the women's tournament, there were much more disruptions in the men's part of the competition. Impeccably his program was rolled only by the Canadian Keegan Messing, who took third place.

The first line was predictably left behind the main favorite of the competition and the favorite of the local public, Nathan Chen. His main trump card was the cascade of a quadruple sheepskin coat - a triple sheepskin coat in the second half of the performance, which brought him a significant increase in overall assessment. It is worth noting that the two-time world champion could not have been so rosy: at the beginning of the program, he thwarted the way out of the fourth lutz, but the experience did its job, and the skater avoided falling. The judges rated his rental at 102.71 points.

To the delight of the fans, Dmitry Aliyev also made a successful performance, lagging behind Chen by 6.14 points. The most difficult element in his program was the cascade of the quadruple Lutz - a triple sheepskin coat, but the technique let him down a little while doing the sheepskin coat in four turns. Nevertheless, the silver medalist of the European Championship in 2018 can record this rental in an asset.

“In general, everything went well. Emotions after leaving the ice were positive. When I made a mistake on the fourth sheepskin coat, I realized that I needed to take everything into my own hands and execute a purely triple axel, without losing any more points. I’ll call the rental good, they did a great job. Tomorrow you need to speak in the same way, ”Aliyev said.

But the performance of the debutant of adult competitions Roman Savosin can not be called successful. The fall and a gross error in the cascade of triple lutz - triple sheepskin coat threw him to the last line and deprived of chances to compete for prize places.

Support stands for Pavlyuchenko and Khodykin

In the competition of sports couples, Russia was represented by only one duet - Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin. In the evaluation for the components, they lost to the intermediate winners Cheng Peng and Jin Yan, as well as Ashley Kane-Gribble and Timothy Leduca, who took third place, but they were ahead of the Americans in technology. This allowed them to score 71.25 points for themselves and become second. At the same time, the lag behind the Chinese is minimal and amounts to 1.48 points.

The Russians cleanly performed a triple toe loop and a triple twist, as well as an ejection onto a triple rittberger. It is interesting that the local audience was delighted with this impeccable performance and actively supported athletes throughout the entire issue. At the same time, the skaters themselves were more critical of their rental.

• Russian duet Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin
• RIA News
• © Vladimir Song

“We made a mistake in the path of steps - Dasha stumbled, clinging to my leg. So, we have something to work on so that in the future such moments do not happen. The fact that they exceeded the personal record, of course, is good, but this does not mean that the rental was absolutely successful. There is an arbitrary program ahead, we will try to show our maximum there, ”RIA Novosti quoted Khodykin as saying.

Self-criticism of Stepanova and Bukin

In the rhythm dance, the victory was won by the American couple Madison Hubbell - Zachary Donoghue, who was three points ahead of the Russians Alexander Stepanov and Ivan Bukin. The three leaders closed Canadians Lawrence Fournier Baudry and Nikolai Sorensen. Three-time winners of the continental championships admitted that they were unsatisfied with their performance.

“It feels strange enough. We understand what were the flaws, but the levels have not yet been seen. The gap is very large, ”shared Stepanova’s impressions.

Another Russian duo of Tiffany Zagorski - Jonathan Gureyro took fifth place. As it turned out later, the skater was uncomfortable with a knee injury, as a result of which she had to take anesthetic medicine. Another reason for the failure was the crumpled off-season and insufficient amount of time to prepare for the competition.

At the same time, the champions of the junior Grand Prix of the last season Sofia Shevchenko - Igor Eremenko took only the penultimate line after the rhythm dance.