If on the first day of the Grand Prix finals the fans excitedly discussed that the skaters had a new one for the free program, then on Friday the details of the short rentals that were to be held in the evening began to appear. The most anticipated event was the triple axel of Alexandra Trusova. A new leap of ultra-si appeared in her arsenal a few days ago, but she was in no hurry to include it in the preliminary plan for the competitions in Turin.
Nevertheless, the desire to lead in the short program gained the upper hand. Trusova firmly decided that she needed a triple axel, and began to jump hard at it. It didn’t work out very well - the drops followed one after another, and they also led to errors on other elements. The 15-year-old skater had a few more hours to try to fix something outside the ice or to postpone the insidious jump until the Russian championship.
Alena Kostornoy doubts about whether to perform a triple axel or not, could not. Although she performed it in training with undercool, it was too late for her to return to the double. She arrived in Turin as a world record holder in the short program and had to justify such a status, and Kostornaya had to go out on the ice first.
The "angel" performed by the skater immediately came to life, as soon as the music began. It’s as if Kostornaya really gained wings, which, upon entering the triple axel, carried her to an unattainable height and helped to land gently. Judges' ratings also crawled up - the Russian woman had never gained as much as she now for her jump.
Further, Kostornaya could no longer be stopped - both the triple lutz and the cascade received almost maximum allowances, and they relied to all other elements automatically. The ingenious rental of the Russians simply could not be appreciated for new record points, and the audience saw them on the scoreboard. 85.45 points immediately allowed Kostornaya to gain a psychological victory over her rivals. The student of Eteri Tutberidze could only wait for her to be formalized.
📢 Hear them roar !!! Alena Kostornaia delivers it all to take the Ladies Short Program at the Grand Prix Final! 🙌
Full results: https://t.co/n13ONXeu7k#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/X1tpVSpN2k
Trusova next presented her short rental to the music of Edward Grieg. The entire success of her program rested on a triple axel, but the jump remained in the skater's dreams. She fell, earning fewer points than she could on a proven double axel. Coward could only reduce the backlog from the world record to the minimum, but it still turned out to be very solid. She lost exactly 14 points to her classmate, and now only a program with five quadruple jumps can bring Trusova victory.
Anna Scherbakova a priori was not the favorite of the short program - both in components and in technology, she was inferior to Kostornaya. But the champion of Russia did everything possible. Pure hopping content was crowned with a cascade of Lutz - Rittberger in the second half, for which no one else in the world receives bonus points. Shcherbakova scored 78.27 points, almost five points higher than the personal record. Now her quadruple jump Kostornaya should be wary of in the first place.
The last skater, whose technical base could be enough to take the leadership from the Russian athlete, was Rika Kihira. But her triple axel left much to be desired. After the improper landing, the Japanese woman could not cope with the cascade either - a fall on the sheepskin coat finally sent her to the last place after Trusova. The current winner of the Grand Prix finals has barely stepped over the mark of 70 points.
Brady Tennell, the oldest and most inexperienced participant in the tournament, unexpectedly became the most dangerous rival for the Russians. Although she started the rental with a short coat on the sheepskin coat, then the 21-year-old athlete was habitually calm, calmly executing her program step by step. Tennell lost to Trusova in a technical assessment, but thanks to the components she beat Tutberidze’s student and took third place with 72.20 points.
Alina Zagitova closed the first day of the women's competition, and the expectations associated with her were very different. For a long time, fans were not happy with its clean rentals, but in Turin she was perfect at every training. This stability has remained with her now. The Olympic champion performed Lutz-Rittberger so cool at the beginning of the program that the judges who had doubts about the shortage decided to evaluate the cascade as generously as possible.
Leaving the most difficult element behind, Zagitova began to ride for pleasure, and for her this is the best way to perform at the highest level. Kostornaya’s amazing score for the components was blocked by scores with which the judges gave the eldest of all Tutberidze’s students. For leadership Zagitova lacked the base cost, but she completely deserved the second place. Her fight for a place in the sun this season is not over yet.