On December 27, fans could not be late for the men's free program. Short did not answer questions about future winners and applicants for getting into the national team. Many experienced and famous skaters lost less than ten points to leading juniors and did not even get into the strongest group on the second day. After the speech of Andrei Zuber, who was the seventh of the 16 participants on the ice, everyone was entitled to count on the podium.
Sergei Voronov during his speech alarmed the fans - the 32-year-old athlete started spinning from the nose. Previously, he could not fulfill the quadruple sheepskin coat, which, firstly, in itself was a great loss, and secondly, led to the cancellation of one of the triple Lutz. The participant of 15 championships of Russia was left to the leader of the competition at that time Arthur Danielyan, who scored 253.42 points with his net rental with two quadruple salchow.
“Blood from dry air, two days already gone. I was afraid that the blood should go on rotation, so a little dirty the good white ice. Overall it was very hard. The championship of Russia is not an easy start. In any case, I'm glad I came here. Rentals could be even better, but today I honestly fought until the very end, tried to cling to everything, ”Voronov said, adding that he was not going to end his career yet.
32-year-old skater, talking with reporters, with one eye watched the performance of Daniil Samsonov. A young student of Eteri Tutberidze scored decent points this season with his four jumps, but in Krasnoyarsk he fell from both the lutz and the flip, and on the triple axel he made a “butterfly”. But his musicality could not but rejoice - Samsonov showed a decent program, especially for the debutant of the adult championship of Russia, and received 240.21 points from the judges.
“Not everything worked out in both programs. He was quite well prepared, I do not know what happened. We will try to correct it. Not worried, everything is fine. For me, this Russian championship means the experience of playing with adult athletes in such a large hall. I did not feel any small compared to others. I tried to show that I was also worthy to play here, ”said Samsonov, very upset because of such a speech.
But if the 14-year-old skater is still ahead, then for Alexander Samarin the season suddenly came to an end. After the short program, there was still hope that he would be able to correct numerous errors in it, and after the excellent performance of the fourth lutz in a cascade with an oiler and a triple salchow, there was even confidence in this. But then the skater fell from the quadruple flip and the triple axel, made mistakes on other jumps and hardly rolled the program. The technical base was not enough for him to beat Danielyan - Samarin lost only seven tenths of a point. As if he was left without the gold of the Russian championship, he also lost the opportunity to qualify for the national team in order to defend the title of European vice-champion. The skater could not comment on his failure in any way, he only thanked everyone who supported him to the end.
Of the last warm-up, the objectively weakest link was Andrei Lazukin. The skater, who took fourth place a year ago, was noticeably limping while drawing lots, and on the day of the free program he did not part with the ice pack. A miracle did not happen - almost all the jumps in the pupil of Alexei Mishin did not work. Lazukin rolled back to seventh place, which by the end of the competition was to turn into 12th.
The next speaker, Dmitry Aliyev, did not miss his chance to return to the national team after an unsuccessful last season, although his free rental was not ideal. After the fourth lutz, he fell on the fourth sheepskin coat and oiled his second attempt. Quite unexpected was a fall on the path, although Aliyev’s career didn’t have such eccentricities. But the coach of the skater Yevgeny Rukavitsyn after the rental shared his joy with reporters - his student scored 260.98 points in total and finally beat Danielyan.
Much more unexpected than the fall of Aliyev was that at that moment the leading three froze. All four skaters, who closed the competition and were in the lead after a short program, could not even get around Samarin. Andrei Mozalev only exceeded Samsonov by the hundredth point, Peter Gumennik lost two points to his student Tutberidze, and Anton Shulepov, who performed in the sensational costume of the main character from Schindler's List, made his way to seventh place.
“ISU nominated my costume, and then angry comments about Nazism rained down. But this is a costume from the movie. Whoever watched the tape knows that the main character was saving people. At the beginning of the film, he was dressed as a diplomat, and after the war, people handed him a robe as a sign of ownership. I was not upset, it was just strange that people thought about something bad, ”Shulepov explained.
The winner of the short program, Makar Ignatov, could influence the final results. But he stumbled on a quadruple salchow, and after a good quadruple sheepskin coat also stumbled on a triple axel. Left almost without starting jumps, he could no longer catch up with his rivals - at the end of the program, the forces of this gifted and promising skater always left, so even the rotation did not impress the judges. Ignatov scored a total of 249.46 points and took only fourth place.
The results in men's skating exceeded all expectations - Dmitry Aliyev won with absolutely no impressive points, Arthur Danielyan won the free program and jumped to second from 13th place, and Alexander Samarin miraculously remained in the top three and can hope for a trip to the European Championship. In Graz, between him and 16-year-old Danielyan, who can still play in juniors, there will be a struggle for a quota for the World Cup, which Russia has only two. Aliev, as the champion of Russia, should not worry about his place in the national team.
“For the first time, such strange sensations and emotions. I knew the level of my training. After a program that was not entirely successful but successful for me, I was certainly pleased with the free program itself. I would not want to spoil my mood when I am waiting for my place. I did it. The opposite is waiting, sitting and waiting for the other guys to perform. On a ten-point scale, I rate a short program at seven, and an arbitrary eight-point program is sluggish. The main thing is that I feel positive, I want to fight and fight, ”Samarin said after the victory.