The first half of the series of the Grand Prix in figure skating showed that this season rivals can not oppose anything to the debutants from the group Eteri Tutberidze. Young Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Alyona Kostornaya each won one stage, forcing all the favorites from last year to second roles. Naturally, the rivals do not like this state of things, but there is no one to blame but themselves.
The extremely complex and well-thought-out programs of “Three A” can be answered only by increasing the complexity of their own rentals. And while the most impressive way in this direction has been made by the skater, which some overly hot-tempered fans write off annually. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva in the 2019/20 season learned to perform two triple axels in a free program, one of them in a cascade. In addition to this, she already tried to complicate the cascade in the short one, starting with a flip instead of a sheepskin coat, but later returned to the original idea.
Tuktamysheva didn’t stop at this, and for her second stage of the Grand Prix in China, where Shcherbakova and European champion Sofya Samodurova also arrived, she brought even more new products. Alexey Mishin’s student reiterated the flip - toe loop cascade into a short program, and for an arbitrary one she unexpectedly redid the axel cascade, deciding to close it with the same jump, but in two and a half turns. She sent the vacated double sheepskin coat in a bundle to the lutz in the second half. The base cost of the program fell slightly, but if the skater has confidence that with such a set of jumps it will be easier to avoid mistakes, then it was worth the risk.
Shcherbakova, on the other hand, arrived in Chongqing with old developments that brought her the gold of the Grand Prix stage in Las Vegas, but with her previous desire to finally cleanly perform the Lutz-Rittberger cascade. This season, the student Tutberidze constantly underwent a second jump. Of course, this is not so important if the champion of Russia manages to fulfill two quadruple lutz, but it is always better to perform without unnecessary losses, especially in the short program.
Before Shcherbakova on the ice of the Chinese stage of the Grand Prix came Korean Yoo Young. After she won the bronze at a tournament in Canada, she was invited to Chongqing so that the young skater could compete for getting to the final stage in Turin. But even during training, it was clear that Yu Young was not in shape, and in the short program, with an unusual set of music from Romeo and Juliet, she fell on a triple axel and a triple flip. The Korean skater immediately ceased to be considered a contender for the medal.
Hiring Shcherbakova to the soundtrack from the "Perfumer" did not cause any complaints until the turn of the ill-fated cascade came up. The skater’s repulsion turned out to be weak and with an obscure rib, but the 15-year-old Russian woman managed to perform lutz and rittberger without undercutting. It cost her tremendous effort, and the speed on the step track markedly decreased. Nevertheless, Shcherbakova reached the end and received good marks from the judges - 73.51. She immediately six points blocked her best result of the season and broke a personal record in the short program.
Tuktamysheva could gain even more and bypass the young rival due to the triple axel. She took a difficult acceleration and gained decent height, but could not stand on her feet and fell. The cascade that followed then did not work out fully either - the triple sheepskin coat turned into a double one.
The only thing that corresponded to the excellent choreography of Tuktamysheva was the final triple lutz, with which cascade experiments could be much more appropriate. The 22-year-old skater received 65.57 points, losing to Japanese Satoko Miyahara, who can be called the strongest skater at the moment without complex jumps and cascades, and the little-known American Amber Glenn.
The short program was closed by another student of Alexei Mishin - Sofia Samodurova. For a long time she had not had those incendiary and clean rentals that in January 2019 brought her the gold of the European Championship and recognition in the world of figure skating. In Chongqing, she fully performed her hopping content, starting the audience with a Bamboleo song, but the judges did not appreciate the rental. On the cascading sheepskin coat they saw a shortage, and the path of steps got the third level. Samodurov were only in fifth place with an assessment of 63.99 points.
As a result, Shcherbakova won the short program, creating a good backlog from Miyahara (4.6 points). The champion of Russia will be a favorite in the free rental, where everything will depend on the quality performance of the four Lutz. Fortunately, they worked out for Shcherbakova in training.