Two sets of awards have already been played, a world record broke in the short program among couples, and, finally, the time has come for the most long-awaited event of the Russian Figure Skating Championship - women's competitions. The short program closed the evening of the second day, but as soon as the sun rose over the Yenisei, the fans began to arrive at the Platinum Arena to get to the girls' training. Alas, no one was allowed on her except the journalists. It is worth noting that subsequently spectators with too large banners in support of the skaters, with whom they refused to be allowed to enter the stadium, also suffered.
Look at the training was what. For example, how Evgenia Medvedeva rode in a coiled up adhesive tape boot. The day before, she broke her equipment, because of which there were serious fears that the athlete could take off - new skates can be rolled out for at least two months. But the skater was able to hastily solve her problem and skated her program without errors.
Another important event was the triple axel performed by Alexandra Trusova. The Queen of the Four Jumps hasn’t done it at the competitions yet, but at the training he was already confident. Alena Kostornaya tried to perform a similar element, but unexpectedly thwarted the exit, after which she left the lesson before the others.
Finally, a short program of girls began. The first to enter the ice was Alexander Trusova. The whole arena was expecting a triple axel from her, but the skater made only two turns. After a triple flip, she still had not completed the Lutz – Rittberger cascade, replacing the second jump with a sheepskin jump. Trusova received 76.46 points for her rental to the music of Edward Grieg. Later, she explained the unexpected refusal by a coaching decision, which she really did not want to agree with. But there were reasons for that - for her and other students of Eteri Tutberidze, this Russian championship is qualifying for the national team, and the team does not want to risk it again.
The next of last year’s medalists, Russia's champion Anna Shcherbakova showed her program. Nobody limited her in complexity, however, while she could not perform her quadruple jumps. The crown number of her program was the Lutz Cascade - Rittberger, in which the second element was incredibly high and wide, as if it was not designed for only three turns. After him, Shcherbakova relaxed and dabbled to the end of the program for her pleasure, receiving 79.93 points for her - following Trusova she exceeded her personal record in short hire.
As a reward for her skating, Shcherbakova received a generous gift from the fans - a toy bear in human height. While she was handing out comments in the mixed zone, trainer Sergey Dudakov and choreographer Daniil Gleichengauz hardly carried him behind her, which looked very comical.
In the first warm-up there was one athlete who was the only one before Evgenia Medvedeva who could try to stop Tutberidze’s students. Elizabeth Tuktamysheva due to the triple axel could well get around the skaters who do not own them. But the 23-year-old athlete was mistaken in the roll-out from the jump, and she received no allowances. Tuktamysheva made no other mistakes, but she lost to Trusova in both technology and components. Pupil Alexei Mishin stopped at around 75.74 points.
The second group of participants was opened by the winner of the Grand Prix finals, Alena Kostornaya. Rumors about her skipping the Russian Championship skater ruthlessly trampled her magic program. Although the athlete has been riding her for the second year already and, by her own admission, she began to get tired of her, in Krasnoyarsk she again created a masterpiece, starting with an impeccable triple axel, rated for solid fives. For even a second Kostornaya did not leave the image of an angel and did not allow herself a single error.
On the scoreboard installed on the sidelines of the arena, the score of the 16-year-old athlete began to grow with alarming speed - even before the two final spins, she caught up with Shcherbakova using the technique. Kostornaya was obliged to break her world record, but no one, not even her coaches, expected what the final result would be. She lacked only 14 hundredths of a point to a mark of 90 points - until recently, the world was amazed at 80 points scored by Evgeny Medvedev and Alina Zagitova, and now even such a phenomenal result seems to be a passed stage.
The grandeur of Kostornaya’s rental is indicated by the fact that she scored more points than any of the men who played in the short program at the Russian Championship. As a reward, Kostornaya also received a huge toy, only a panda, and Dudakov and Gleichengauz again had to turn from trainers into porters.
Nobody really approached the first four for a long time - neither Sofya Samodurova, nor Stanislav Konstantinov, who a year ago fought for the title of best skaters among adults. The judges sharply became stricter, and none of the girls began to reach even 70 points.
Only Medvedev was able to make some confusion. On her long-suffering boots, which failed to find a replacement, she skipped the program to Muse music without failures and errors. But in the protocols the judges wrote down all the flaws - both undershot on a cascading sheepskin coat and low levels on spins. High components did not compensate for the huge lag in technology - Medvedev received only 71.08 points for his rental on almost one foot. Only Tuktamysheva can still intervene in the distribution of medals, but only if she nevertheless performs the quadruple sheepskin coat.