Rare jumps, new names and old favorites: why the men's figure skating tournament in the Czech Republic will be more interesting than the women's

Usually, before the start of the Russian figure skating championship, fans are first and foremost looking forward to the women's singles tournament.

It is in this discipline that athletes of the highest level gather under one roof, thanks to which competitions by default become stronger than those that take place at the World Championships and the Olympic Games, and the intrigue, as a rule, remains until the last.

This year, interest in the tournament was fueled by stories with high-profile coaching transitions of Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaya.

However, figure skating lovers shouldn't forget about men's skating, the results of which may surprise even more.

In recent years, singles have taught that the competition in their form is noticeably lower than in others.

Since 2012, they have won only one medal at the world championships (bronze by Mikhail Kolyada in 2018) and won two victories at the European championships (Evgeny Plushenko in 2012 and Dmitry Aliev in 2020).

The main tournaments are mostly attended by the same composition of participants with minor exceptions in the person of Andrei Lazukin or Artur Danielyan, whose silver at last year's Russian Championship was the last sensation of these competitions over the past few years.

Fans and experts could have predicted any other winners in advance.

But this season has shown that the circle of contenders for the medals of the Russian championship in Chelyabinsk will be incredibly wide.

To the "old guard", which is personified by Mikhail Kolyada and Alexander Samarin, were added several grown-up juniors and already adult skaters who managed to take a step forward during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, last year's champion and vice-champion of Europe Dmitry Aliyev and Artur Danielyan will not compete for health reasons.

Kolyada can be generally recognized as the main favorite of the Russian championship.

He won the Russian Cup stage in Sochi and took first place at the Moscow Grand Prix stage.

He also owns the highest marks in the season (283.44).

The transition to Alexei Mishin allowed Kolyada to forget about last year's failures that arose due to health problems.

He still has a hard time with the triple axel, but on the quad sheepskin coat he has made only one mistake so far.

At the same time, Kolyada is able to compensate for the flaws in the technique with the best programs among all single skaters.

Alexander Samarin went out on the ice only once - in October.

Both before and after that, injuries prevented him from performing.

At the second stage of the Russian Cup, the vice-champion was in poor shape and even refused to perform quadruple jumps when he fell on a sheepskin coat in the short program.

Samarin decided to fly to Chelyabinsk, but he risks giving way to younger athletes.

The most prominent representative of them is Peter Humennik.

This season, he was the only one who climbed the podium three times - at first he was a bronze medalist at the Russian Cup and Grand Prix stages, and then won the competition in Moscow, even though many skaters missed them due to illness.

But this fact should not underestimate the merits of the recent junior - Humennik has a quadruple salchow in his arsenal, and in Chelyabinsk he can try to perform a quadruple lutz, which many singles have already forgotten about this season.

The reigning world junior champion Andrei Mozalev also has a trademark jump.

In every box office he tries to perform a quadruple flip and often gets his way.

True, even if the attempt was successful, the 17-year-old skater would surely disrupt other important elements.

Because of this, the young man twice became the second at the stages of the Russian Cup and was one step away from the podium at the Rostelecom Cup.

If a young athlete in Chelyabinsk avoids disruptions, he will definitely be able to count on a medal.

Evgeny Semenenko has a chance to break into the favorites.

He first announced himself at the fourth stage of the Russian Cup, when he won a rather unexpected victory thanks to a good quadruple salchow.

After that, he became the third in the free program at the Grand Prix stage, which is a good achievement at his age, and in December he won the St. Petersburg championship, performing three quadruple jumps - sheepskin coat, salchow and rittberger.

Another 17-year-old figure skater Artyom Kovalev quickly burst into the new season.

The student of the Academy "Angels Plushenko" was remembered for being the only one who could win two stages of the Russian Cup.

True, he never performed purely quadruple jumps, and also failed the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix.

But still, Kovalev managed to earn attention to himself.

Of the older skaters, Makar Ignatov stands out first.

He, like Semenenko, tries to perform three quadruple jumps in a free program, but replaces Salchow with a second sheepskin coat.

At the same time, the 20-year-old skater makes a special bet on the rittberger, who has already managed to perform purely five times.

If Ignatov's other jumps were just as stable, then he would have approached the Russian Championship with something more than two bronzes of the Russian Cup stages.

Each of the above skaters has the right to count on medals in Chelyabinsk if he avoids mistakes and simply performs in his own strength. At the same time, for everyone, including Kolyada, who missed last season, getting into the top three will be a sensation. Competitions for men will definitely keep the fans in suspense from the first to the last skating, and not only during the performance of the strongest warm-up, as has been the case in the women's tournament in recent years.