When the last free dance performed by Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donoghue ended at the Palawela Arena, Russian fans had time to take a breath before the girls perform and briefly summarize the Grand Prix finals. For Russian skaters, this tournament did not work out as expected - only one bronze in pair skating, no medals for men and dancers. Figure skaters from the group of Eteri Tutberidze had to smooth out the overall impression. This reminded me of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, when great hopes were also placed on the entire Russian team, but only girls could please in personal competitions.
Only now Tutberidze brought to Turin not two skaters capable of fighting for the highest places, but four at once. In past years, such a representation of Russia invariably caused talk that they won’t be allowed to occupy the entire podium. Today, it would simply be impossible to imagine such a situation, if only because after a short program, the lag of Brady Tennell and Ricky Kihira from Alena Kostornaya, Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova was quite impressive, and Alexander Trusov had not yet said her last word, threatening to show the same a complicated program like Nathan Chen or Yuzuru Hanyu.
The free program started with a speech by Tennell and her attempt to reach at least the result of Zagitova. The American really tried and gave out one of the best rentals in her career. In addition to one cascading sheepskin coat, the entire hopping part of Tennell was performed perfectly, without the slightest hint of some kind of failure. Three years ago, with such skating, a US skater could easily compete with Evgenia Medvedeva in her best form, but now with a score of 212.18 she could easily be the last.
Kihira immediately pushed Tennell, although her main goal was still Russian girls. For the sake of this, the Japanese again tried to fulfill the quadruple salchow. The current winner of the Grand Prix finals soared high at the beginning of her program and made all four turns, but still fell. For the rest, Kihira was flawless, including on triple axels. She lost this battle to the Russian skaters, but before the World Cup she will have time to finish the quad jump.
The first of the Russians on the ice was Alexander Trusova. Immediately, her program to the music of Game of Thrones began with a historical event - a 15-year-old skater performed a quadruple flip. She did this first among women.
Then Trusova again experienced problems with the quadruple salchow, only much more serious than the fall - they managed to make only two turns, which cost almost nothing. But the more complex lutz was executed without any complaints. Trusova then took a breather to the cascade with a double axel and proceeded to the four sheepskin coats - the task of the first in history among girls to complete four jumps in four turns has not been canceled. But still, its implementation had to be postponed until the next tournament, as the second attempt turned into a fall. Trusova scored a total of 233.18 points for two rentals and led the competition. This guaranteed the Russian girls the gold of the Grand Prix finals.
🔥 It's a quad showdown in the Ladies Free Skating at the Grand Prix Final !! ⤵️ Quad Lutz from Alexandra Trusova! # GPFigure # FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com / vX3bo20KX1
- ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) December 7, 2019Only myself could not pick up the gold medal of Trusov. Immediately from the first place she was replaced by Anna Shcherbakova. The champion of Russia tried after her teammate to execute a quadruple flip and fell from it, but her two quadruple lutz were still with her. Shcherbakova, with every second of her Firebird, was approaching the result of Trusova - her skating and movement became even better compared to the stages of the Grand Prix, the rotation was lightning fast, and the color change of the dress habitually caused even more excitement than any jump. Scherbakova’s marks fully corresponded to the impression made - the judges scored 240.92 points, that is, only one tenth of the points less than Trusova’s world record.
Next came the turn of Alena Kostornaya, who a year ago already won the Grand Prix finals, but only at the junior level. She began her performance under the soundtrack from Twilight with two amazing triple axels. It immediately became apparent that the best skater in the world is skating at the moment, which cannot be defeated even with quadruple jumps. The judges could only admit it in their own way - with crazy assessments both for the technique, in which about 20 points were extra charges, and for the components. Kostornaya slightly lost Scherbakova in points for an arbitrary program, but the total result was 247.59 points. Once again, the world record belongs to the skater, who does not perform quadruple jumps.
🥇 Alena Kostornaia 🇷🇺 wins the Ladies at the Grand Prix Final in Torino!
Full results: https://t.co/UPhbKSchyn#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/IrxORO8vnh
Kostornaya's performance led to a historic event. For the first time in the history of the Grand Prix finals, three girls from one country were to take the entire podium. Only a company of three young girls could still theoretically be diluted with Alina Zagitova.
But alas, for the Olympic champion, who took second place after a short program, free hire was a difficult test. The fall and undercools on almost every jump so spoiled her magnificent image of Cleopatra that even in terms of components Zagitova lost to some of her rivals. The oldest skater from the Tutberidze group was the last both in the free program and according to the results of the competition. Kostornaya, Shcherbakova and Trusova, who in this order climbed the podium, have nothing to oppose to the Olympic champion.
The top three Ladies of the Grand Prix Final 🥇🥈🥉
Full results: https://t.co/UPhbKSchyn#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/w3XIlQ5hJV