The first duel of students Tutberidze
The French Grand Prix in Grenoble was honored to be the first official tournament to host Alina Zagitova this season. Olympic champion Pyeongchang chose not to go to the Challengers and confine herself to participating in the show, as well as the Japan Open commercial launch. At the last, she presented only a free program and a new spectacular dress.
The performance in the image of Cleopatra to oriental music was impressive, and the tournament judges rated it at 154.41 points. This is only one point less than Zagitova received at the triumphant world championship in Saitama. But in the 2019/20 season, this result is not so impressive - Alexander Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, and Alena Kostornaya, who will be the main rival of the Olympic champion in France, managed to beat him.
Among the new pupils of Eteri Tutberidze, it was Kostornaya who was closest to Zagitova in style and technical equipment of the programs. They did not chase the quadruple jumps and continued to bet on skating, choreography and presentation, which both brilliantly cope with. But Kostornaya still went beyond her more experienced girlfriend and included a triple axel in her arsenal. The premiere of the jump took place at the Finlandia Trophy. With him, the 16-year-old skater almost completely eliminated the gap with the four-jump skaters and scored an impressive amount of 234.84 points - this is even more than that of Shcherbakova and Rika Kihira this season.
Zagitova, however, was not able (or did not have time) to learn the elements of the ultra-si category. Its most complicated technique remains the Lutz cascade - the Rittberger, executed at the beginning of an arbitrary program without extra charges. In the second half of the rental, Alina has only one cascade, and for modern women’s skating this may seem like a waste of money - she seems to be not at all interested in the pursuit of the technical cost of the program.
But this is precisely what Zagitova was striving for, which even last season was gradually moving away from jumping to skating. The transformation ended with a gold medal of the World Cup and its final recognition in the judiciary as a special skater, which can be coaxed with components, especially since it is absolutely deserved. This is the advantage of Zagitova over younger classmates, to whom she will concede in the free program, but not catastrophically, but in the short one - beat them with an obvious advantage.
It is this alignment that should confirm the Grand Prix stage in Grenoble. For Zagitova, Kostornaya is an ideal rival, since they will go on a level during both days of the competition and in full-time confrontation they will decide who will win the gold and get the most points for qualifying for the Grand Prix finals. So far, they are fighting only with each other, and in Japan they will meet again, and Kihira will be waiting for them there.
Samarin is preparing a surprise
In men's single skating, the main stars of the competition will be Soma Uno and Nathan Chen, who do not need too much introduction. Both skater already managed to declare themselves this season, like no other of the presented participants.
Chen almost reached the sum of 300 points at the home stage of the Grand Prix, performing five quadruple jumps in two programs. Uno does not yet have such points, but he won the Finlanida Trophy, albeit with a modest 255.23 points for him personally. For a skater who spent the whole summer searching for a coach and did not find a permanent mentor, this is a very good result, which many would have dreamed of.
An attempt to wedge between them can be undertaken by Alexander Samarin. The vice-champion of Europe in 2019 has not yet pleased with the results, but all because he seriously intended to include a quadruple flip in his rentals and spends all his energy on this. At the international competitions of this season, there was no clearance so far - each time the flip in his performance was disappointing, and the skater himself could not collect his thoughts after mistakes and perfectly prove the program.
Before arriving in France, Samarin finally moved off the ground. He performed a short program at the Panin-Kolomenkin memorial and not only performed a clean quadruple flip, but also added a triple toe loop to it. He also had an attempt of the four lutz, but the skater could not stand on his feet after landing.
All this inspires some optimism and hope that last year’s leader of the Russian team will compete if not for silver, then for bronze for sure. Although there will be many more applicants for the podium - Maurice Kvitelashvili, Kevin Aymoz and Sergey Voronov, who is spending the 17th season at the adult level. At the last four stages of the Grand Prix, the 32-year-old veteran must have won medals and was selected for the finals.
Disputes between young Russian couples
The stars of the doubles tournament in Grenoble were supposed to be the owners of the ice Vanessa James and Morgan Sipre. But they decided to take an example from the dancers Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, who spent the rest of last autumn on vacation and refused to compete. European champions will return to the ice to the national championship, but for now the Grand Prix stage in Grenoble will pass without them.
In their absence, the Russian couple Daria Pavlyuchenko - Denis Khodykin will have excellent chances of victory. They have already performed at the stage in the United States, where they became silver medalists with personal records. At the same time, the pair showed that they could gain more points if the rental goes without falling from the ejection, and the judges stop finding fault with the triple flip, which is the only one in all pair skating. Then young Russians will enter the club for couples who score more than 200 points at international starts.
Do not discount another representative of the new generation of the Russian team Anastasia Mishin and Alexander Gallyamov. The reigning world junior champions are already joining the club after playing at the Finlandia Trophy, where they amazed the judges with the most difficult jumps, the difficult ejection of the triple flip and perfect spins. Mishina and Galliamov, thanks to the then earned 210.18 points, are on the third line among all the pairs of this season. But for skaters from St. Petersburg this will be the first stage of the Grand Prix in a career, and still it is not worth expecting much from them.
The main threat to Russian couples will be unusual to come from the Americans. Haven Denny and Brandon Fraser at the home stage were bronze medalists right after Pavlyuchenko and Khodykin, and Ashley Kane-Gribble and Timothy Ledak loudly started the season with 205.58 points, but they did not confirm their level at the Grand Prix.
Premiere of Papadakis and Cizeron
French fans will not be bored - the strongest dancers of the world Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron will perform for them. They didn’t perform at large pre-season tournaments, but at one local competition they showed a rhythm dance to the musical Fame at home, for which they already received marks that exceeded the world record. It is possible that at the Grand Prix they will continue to beat their achievements, despite the efforts of all the other couples who dream of approaching their level. So far, Papadakis and Sizeron do not give reason to doubt themselves, like all recent years.
Two duos will fight for silver. The Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates scored the same points on the Challengers as the Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri. Both couples enjoyed the benefits of home refereeing, but they did not need it to confirm their high class.
Only Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gurreiro, who finished fifth in Skate America with a total of 181.82 points, will represent Russia in ice dancing. Such assessments are not particularly quoted in the world, but now it is more important for them to gain a foothold in the status of the third pair of Russia, and for this they need to fight only with themselves, and not with someone else for medals of the competition. They won’t make it to the Grand Prix finals, and therefore they can only prepare for the Russian championship through other competitions.