Victory in every form: Russian skaters won all the gold at the home stage of the Grand Prix

Russian pedestal in men

The short program of men ended in the most pleasant way for Russian fans - immediately three skaters, for whom the walls of Megasport are native, took the first three places. But Alexander Samarin, Dmitry Aliyev and Grand Prix debutant Makar Ignatov were too early to relax. The results were so dense that even the sixth Canadian Nam Nguyen could snatch victory from all competitors in one jump.

According to the results of the draw, the trinity of Russians was the last in the free program. The reference point for Dmitry Aliyev, who was the first to skate, was the result of Syoma Uno, who scored 252.24 points with two drops on his four jumps. Aliyev also had problems with quadruples, but of a different nature - he made starting lutz and a three-turn sheepskin coat. Again, as at the Grand Prix in the USA, he had to urgently redraw the program and find a place for unfulfilled elements, while observing the prerequisite that only two types of jumps can be repeated.

Aliyev almost completed his task - the audience still saw two four-piece sheepskin coats, and this was a real salvation for the student Yevgeny Rukavitsyn. But it was not possible to find a replacement for the triple lutz in the cascade, and for his good attempt he did not receive anything from the judges. However, these errors did not slightly distort the final result. Aliyev scored 169.24 points for a free program and 259.88 points in total - since the silver European Championship in 2018, he has not received so much. In addition, if Aliyev had performed any simpler jump instead of the triple lutz, the ratings would have been even higher.

It was a little alarming for Ignatov, who had never once fought for medals of such competitions. But the recent junior calmly began the program with the fourth salchow and the fourth sheepskin coat, and it became clear that the result of Uno could be submitted to him. Once again, this feeling disappeared after an error in the final cascade - Ignatov showed the youngest viewers the basics of performing the salchow, making only one revolution. But in the end, for the Russian skater, it all ended happily. He was ahead of the vice-champion of the Olympic Games by 0.63 points and got his first medal.

And to complete the Russian pedestal of honor was to Alexander Samarin. He began his rental with another stunning cascade of quadruple Lutz - a triple sheepskin coat. Six judges put the “five” for him, and in the end the skater broke the world record for points for one element, gaining 21.12 points. Unfortunately, it did not work out to make a flip and a sheepskin coat in four turns, but the rest of the program did not cause any complaints.

That was enough to win - Samarin scored 264.45 points in total and won the Grand Prix stage for the first time in his career. As a bonus, he also received a ticket to the final tournament in Turin, where so far only Nathan Chen managed to break through. Aliyev could have also passed the selection, but Ignatov, who took third place, prevented him - the debutant of the Grand Prix still has theoretical chances to make it to the finals himself following the results of the next stage in Japan.

Second victory of Sinitsina and Katsalapov in a week

As in men's skating, in ice dancing, the entire first three after the first day remained at their places. And this meant that Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won the second stage of the Grand Prix in a row, having coped with this task in just one week.

The technical score for any rental was almost the same as at the last tournament in China. If then the couple was fined for the delay in support, then this time the judges simply reduced the level for this element. But in terms of components, the Russian duet continued to progress and has already received three “tens” instead of one. Having improved his personal record in the total mark to 212.15 points, Sinitsina and Katsalapov further strengthened their status as the best duet in the world after Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron.

Ice dancing was the only view at the Grand Prix stage in Moscow, where Russian skaters took only one step of the podium. Young couples Anastasia Shpileva - Grigory Smirnoy and Anastasia Skoptsova - Kirill Alyoshin did not manage to reach even the first five, and as a result they took sixth and ninth places. Once again, the rule was confirmed that even in their own walls, inexperienced couples could not force adult rivals.

Breakthrough of Boykova and Kozlovsky

The Russian podium was also possible in pair skating. However, for Ksenia Stolbova and Andrei Novosyolov, who took third place in the short program, the second day of the Grand Prix stage turned into a real nightmare. A new round in their career began extremely unsuccessfully.

The new partner of the Olympic champion continued to make mistakes in jumping, as was already the case in the short program. The ejection of the triple Lutz reassured the fans a little, but then Stolbova fell on Salkhov. On top of that, the pair did not make one of the supports. A rare item in their program has received a premium to its core value. Stolbova and Novosyolov not only missed the Austrians Miriam Ziegler and Zeferin Kiefer ahead of the first warm-up, but also allowed the Germans to win bronze to Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nolan Segert.

The rest of the Russian medals were not called into question. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov continued their progressive movement and encouraged those fans who were afraid that their adaptation period would be delayed with the new coach Marina Zueva. Jumping is not the strongest side of the pair, especially Tarasova, but progress in more important elements is obvious. The couple earned more support than usual on support, and only two judges did not give the maximum mark for the twist. Even taking into account how many Tarasov and Morozov were short, they received a total of 216.77 points - this is already the level of leaders of the season.

True, just a few minutes later, the overall bar for couples has grown significantly. Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky performed incredibly cool under one of the songs from the James Bond films. Impeccable emissions, clean jumps, twisting the fourth level and supporting the fifth group with almost the maximum allowance - all this was just a frame for the delightfully embodied images of young Russians.

Again, as on the eve, the air was electrified from potential world records. The judges again decided that it was too early to encourage Boykov and Kozlovsky so far, at least because of the status of the tournament. But they got higher marks than season leaders Sui Wenjin and Han Kun from China - 229.48 points. Until recently, it seemed that the world champions would remain invincible this season, but now they have the most dangerous competitors brought up by Tamara Moskvina.