Before the start of the 2019/20 season Grand Prix series, domestic fans could reasonably dream that six Russian girls would immediately go to the finals in Turin: young shoots Eteri Tutberidze, Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. After three stages, the number of real applicants from Russia dropped to five, since Medvedeva needs to perform a miracle in order to qualify after the failure at the Canadian stage.
At the Chinese stage, the chance of a December trip to Italy fell already with Tuktamysheva. The fall on the triple axel, the double sheepskin coat in the cascade and the low components sent it to fourth place after a short program, and to get to the final you need to win at least silver. Of course, the fight has not been lost yet - the lag behind the second Japanese woman Satoko Miyahara was a little more than three points, and they could be won due to the higher cost of an arbitrary program. But it still had to be completed without new disruptions to the corporate element.
Sophia Samodurova, who opened the strongest workout, managed to show a good example to her older friend. The European champion, although she was still slightly squeezed, skated her program for tango cleanly. But if earlier the judges gave ratings in favor of the Russian woman, then this season she does not manage to regain their location. For a good, collected rental, she received 121.30 points - nine less than Yu Yong, who fell on the triple axel. As a result, Samodurova had to miss the Korean woman by the sum of the points.
Last night I was able to tune in the right way and Tuktamysheva. She decided to put the experiments aside and not shuffle the jumps, as she originally intended. The first triple ax of the skater turned out to be clean, and she “attached” a double sheepskin coat to it without problems. The solo jump was also impeccable - Tuktamysheva was able to escape after the failure of the first day. But it was too early to rejoice, since there was still the whole program ahead. As soon as the athlete dreamed of a medal, she was unable to leave the triple lutz and lost a couple of points on this.
Further Tuktamysheva no longer allowed herself liberties and gave all the best to impress with her production to the music from the Moulin Rouge. She caused a storm of delight among the audience not with her cascades in the second half of the program, but with choreography and tracks that characterize Tuktamyshev even more than the triple axel. For an arbitrary rental, she received the best ratings for herself for the season - 143.53 points, and in total scored more than 209 points.
This result immediately allowed Tuktamysheva to rise to third place - neither Japanese Marine Honda nor American Amber Glenn, who unexpectedly shot on the first day, could skate cleanly, so even Samodurova was on the fifth line. But Satoko Miyahara still had to go on the ice.
And even without super-complicated jumps and cascades, the Japanese beat the Russian athlete. The judges were impressed by her production, in which Miyahara looked really harmonious and easy. Three shortcuts at the end of the program did not allow her to bypass Tuktamyshev in the evaluation for free rental, but according to the total result, Miyahara was ahead by 2.08 points. Silver did not submit to the Russian woman, and now her chances of reaching the Grand Prix finals are too small - this can only happen if one of the competitors fails in the next two stages.
And Anna Shcherbakova can already book tickets to Turin. She won a landslide victory, which was not in doubt after the start of her free program. The student Eteri Tutberidze again performed two quadruple lutz, one of which is in the cascade, although at the warm-up she fell from this difficult jump.
Later, the judges saw a shortage in the first attempt and again were fined for obscure ribs. If at first the technical score of Shcherbakova was close to a hundred points, which of the girls only Alexandra Trusova obeyed, then during the final count she sagged a lot. The figure skater was left without personal records - on Skate America, her grades were better than 152.53 points for a free program and 226.04 points in total shown in China.
Nevertheless, it was much more important that Shcherbakova won two victories and thanks to this, at her very first Grand Prix, she made it to the finals, having done this before the other skaters. Now it’s the turn of Alexandra Trusova, who will perform in a week in Moscow, and Alina Zagitova, Alena Kostornaya and Rika Kihira, who will fight at the last stage in Japan.