Falls, blots and controversial work of the judge: what prevented the Russians in short programs at the Grand Prix stage in Japan

The second in dancing after the champions

Alexander Stepanova and Ivan Bukin had to wait more than a month to speak at the second stage of the Grand Prix for themselves in the 2019/20 season. In Sapporo, they came for the second place, which would ensure that the dance couple got into the final tournament. It’s quite difficult for Russians to count on more - the last stage in the series also went to the invincible Gabriele Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron.

It was really impossible to fight the French in their extravagant costumes for acrobatics. In rhythm dance, they performed almost perfectly from a technical point of view - only on the track along the central axis did they not have a fourth level. Each element and each component again received almost maximum scores, and as a result, a significant event for ice dancing took place - Papadakis and Sizeron were the first in history to cross the line of 90 points for a short program.

Stepanova and Bukin followed and closed the first day of the dance tournament. In a more conservative production of the musical Moulin Rouge, they also made no serious technical errors, having received almost four levels for almost all the elements. The judges could be alerted by Stepanova’s hairdo damaged during the dance, but they still did not attach any importance to this.

The Russians took second place with a score of 84.07 points and a personal record in rhythm dance. True, the gap from their main competitors - Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri - was less than two points. In a free dance, Stepanova and Bukin will have to continue to fight for their silver.

In Sapporo the bottom was performed by the Russian couple Sofya Shevchenko - Igor Eremenko, living in the world of adult ice dancing. The bronze medalists of the last World Junior Championships began a good rhythm dance to the music from Burlesque, but at the end they didn’t receive points for the finestep section and a partial step track. Their score (69.59 points) allowed the young couple to take seventh place among nine participants.

Losing pair and referee from Canada

The short program of sports couples was also decorated with a new world record. What Alexander Boykov and Dmitry Kozlovsky could not achieve at the stage in Moscow, were done by the Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Tsun in Sapporo. In terms of technique, the world champions lost to the Russians - they still have problems with rotation, the ejection scored less, and the parallel sheepskin coat was rated lower than salchow.

But the rest of the pair from China turned out to be better, and estimates for the components lifted it to an unprecedented height. Sui Wenjing and Han Tsun scored 81.27 points, beating Eugenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov on six hundredths. Such a performance brought the Chinese a crazy break from the closest pursuers before the free program.

Canadians Kirsten Moore Towers and Michael Marinaro took second place, whose short program could not be called ideal. The twist and todes got the second level of difficulty, the rotation did not work out at all, and the support did not bring the expected allowances. As a result, only 71.21 points.

The winners of the Grand Prix stage in France Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov were to take their place. However, the pair was prevented by the partner’s mistake on the triple salchow and the ambiguous work of a judge from Canada. Deborah Aislam negatively assessed the twist and throw of a triple flip, and on support chose to leave the base cost, while other referees were ready to reward the couple with allowances on all three elements.

The huge range of ratings in the components also did not help Mishina and Gallyamova - in the end, they received only 69 points exactly and took third place. It would be enough for a couple to maintain such a position to get into the Grand Prix finals, but if the Moor Towers and Marinaro remain second, then Tarasova and Morozov will not go to the tournament.

Almost a record from Hania

The men's short program, which closed the first day of the competition, was fraught with two intrigues: whether Yuzuru Chania would break the fourth world record for the day and how the applicants for a ticket to the Grand Prix finals would perform in relation to each other. In addition to the Japanese, three more skaters could compete for a trip to Turin - American Jason Brown, Frenchman Kevin Aymoz and Russian Makar Ignatov.

Ignatov got such a chance recently when he took third place at the Grand Prix home stage. In Sapporo, he was close to repeating his impeccable short rental - the 19-year-old skater performed the quadruple salchow in cascade and the quadruple toe loop in solo. But the impression of the program spoiled the fall on the triple axel. Ignatov scored a total of 78.47 points, which, in the end, was enough only for fifth place, despite the fact that winning a medal is a prerequisite for him to reach the Grand Prix finals.

The Russian skater was immediately behind the Canadian Roman Sadovsky, and then Sergey Voronov went around his compatriot. At 32 years old, he can still compete with young skaters when he performs the entire program with a quadruple toe loop. Voronov scored 88.63 points and broke a personal record for the season. With this performance, he again increased his chances of participating in the European Championship.

Ignatov’s mistake was taken by Kevin Aymoz. The Frenchman executed the program easier, but with such a margin of safety on the triple lutz and with such a confident triple axel that he immediately found himself in the intermediate first place with a score of 91.47 points. True, now Aymoz needs to be just as cleanly skated in an arbitrary program, and this figure skater is rarely distinguished by stability.

Jason Brown lost the chances for the Grand Prix finals almost immediately, as he began to show his short rental. The American skater fell twice, and on far from the most valuable and difficult jumps. His fall to seventh place can do good service to Dmitry Aliyev and Jin Boyan - they are the leaders in the lineup for the finals of the Grand Prix among the skaters who have already completed their performances in the series.

As for the world record in the performance of Chania, which the fans were waiting for, then he really was quite real. The Japanese once again brilliantly performed on their own ice, spicing up a unique, indescribable choreography with a quadruple salchow, a triple axel and a cascade of quadruple sheepskin coats - a triple sheepskin coat. After the first jump of the cascade, Hanyu landed too deep, and it was too dangerous to continue further. But the two-time Olympic champion with some incredible effort pushed off and made the necessary sheepskin coat. The judges were impressed - Chania scored 109.34 points, losing a little more than her world record.