On the last day of the Russian Figure Skating Championships, traditionally, demonstrations were planned. The five best participants in each form were invited to please the fans with their extravagant or sensual programs, as well as Evgenia Medvedev, who had withdrawn from the competition due to a broken boot, and several more athletes for joint numbers.
But before the show, the skaters had a reason to worry a bit - early in the morning in Krasnoyarsk, meetings of the coaching council of the national team and the executive committee of the Russian Figure Skating Federation were held, at which the composition of the Russian team for the European Championship was determined.
The verdict of functionaries became known even before the end of all meetings. There were no surprises - all the winners of the Russian championship received well-deserved quotas, including Anna Scherbakova, Alyona Kostornaya and Alexandra Trusova, who will try to get the three of them on the podium at the third consecutive tournament.
“The composition of the Russian national team was clearly formed according to the sporting principle - according to the results of the Russian Championship 2020 in Krasnoyarsk,” the head of the FFKKR Alexander Gorshkov commented briefly on the decision.
The number of girls' spares included only two athletes: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Anastasia Gulyakova. Valery Shulskaya, who took the eighth place, could join them, but still they did not choose the third replacement in the FFKKR. In other disciplines, three athletes and a couple retain a chance to participate in the European Championship.
At the demonstrations, the organizers presented the audience with a present - the famous Hungarian violinist Edwin Marton arrived in Krasnoyarsk, who, together with the skater Evgeni Plushenko, helped Dima Bilan win the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. The musician took part in two collective numbers that opened both branches of the gala evening. Marton played the famous Stradivarius violin, which is only 70 years younger than Krasnoyarsk.
The star of the show was Tuktamysheva. She again tried on an image that is well known to fans of her age. The skater performed under the song Destination Calabria in the green uniform of the heroine of the video. Tuktamysheva did not forget about the instruments featured in the famous video of 2007 - her skater friends gave her either a saxophone, then a drum, or cymbals, with the punch of which she finished her incendiary number.
Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureyro, bronze medalists in ice dancing, said that they were not preparing a demonstration performance. So when they took third place, then in one day they had to come up with something. The dancers chose a win-win New Year’s option - Gureyro put on Santa Claus’s fur coat and quickly “grew” his beard, and Zagorski became the Snow Maiden. As befits fairy-tale characters, they began to give toys to the audience, although usually the fans themselves after the performances throw gifts to their favorite skaters.
Evgenia Medvedeva fulfilled her promise and returned to Krasnoyarsk ice with an indicative number for the song of Billy Ailish. She could not perform jumps due to an unresolved problem with her boot, but the spectators liked the rotation and the tracks in a dress resembling a straitjacket. After the speech, Medvedev long bowed to the fans.
“Happy New Year! I wish you all an unforgettable next 2020 and that all your dreams and desires come true. I wish you happiness! ”The figure skater addressed the audience.
Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin played a sketch of a typical daily routine for the skater. At first, Pavlyuchenko tried for a long time to wake her partner, who was living under a blanket right on the ice, and when she did it, they performed a small program together. And then both again “fell asleep”, leaving all the strength in the speech.
Two-time Russian champion Anna Shcherbakova pleased those who until the last hoped to hear familiar tunes from the Memoirs of a Geisha. Instead of Medvedeva, she appeared in the image of a Japanese girl, showing at the same time the bold elements of break dance. After Shcherbakova’s number, all the skaters gathered again on the same ice and said goodbye to the audience until the next Russian championship, which will be held in Chelyabinsk in a year.