The victory of Stepanova and Bukin, the triumph of Kolyada and the sensation from Kondratyuk: what surprised the competition of men and dancers in the Chechen Republic

Victorious return of Stepanova and Bukin

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin became the new champions of Russia in ice dancing.

They won the gold of the national championship on the eighth attempt, having four sets of silver medals and two - bronze medals.

Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureiro moved up to the second place, Anastasia Skoptsova and Kirill Aleshin took the third place.

For both duos, these results were also the best in their careers.

On the eve of the rhythm dance, Stepanova and Bukin had to perform under the first number long before the main competitors.

For a couple who had not competed for 11 months, and had practically not trained before the Russian Championship, this was an incredible challenge that she coped with perfectly.

But in the free program, history practically repeated itself.

Although the duo of the reigning vice-champions of the country got into the strongest warm-up, they had to show their program earlier than their closest pursuers.

For the tournament in Chelyabinsk, Stepanova and Bukin left last year's free dance to the song of Justin Timberlake, although they also managed to learn a new one, already with an eye on the Olympic Games.

The fact that the couple has not parted with this production for a long time did not bother either the fans or the judges, especially since the dancers slightly transformed their number, making it even more dynamic.

Stepanova and Bukin performed in the same breath and did not give rise to doubt about their superiority that day.

For individual elements, they did not receive marks below three, and for components - below 9.50 points.

As a result, they received 132.88 points for free dance and 220.16 points after two days.

Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov would have found it very difficult to defend the title of Russian champions in such conditions if they took part in the tournament.

Zagorski and Gureiro also showed the Lara Croft program, already well known to the fans.

Their performance was notable for the drama brought to the limit, from which the audience in the end could not sit still and greeted the skaters standing.

The pair scored 210.94 points, updating their best result of the season.

The bronze medalists Skoptsova and Alyoshin did not have perfect rental.

Already at the very beginning, the partner made a mistake on the twizzles and in the future could not stop reproaching herself for this, speaking without her usual emotions.

Paré also lowered the levels on the step track, and as a result, the judges rated their performance at the Russian championship at 196.97 points.

Elizaveta Khudayberdieva and Yegor Bazin could well press the young duo from third place, but their incendiary and bright performance had its drawbacks.

The partner, for whom the tournament in Chelyabinsk became the first Russian championship in her career, stumbled on twizzles, and the more experienced Bazin was put on the first level of difficulty on the step path.

As a result, they scored 192.68 points and did not even hold on to fourth place, letting Sophia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko go ahead.

It is worth noting that Annabel Morozov and Andrey Bagin became the unofficial bronze medalists in the free dance.

They performed in the penultimate group and not only avoided mistakes, but also received very worthy components for their sensual performance.

Kolyada's championship and Kondratyuk's unexpected bronze

Mikhail Kolyada became the champion of Russia in figure skating after a three-year break.

He celebrated winning the country's main event for the third time in his career.

Makar Ignatov became the silver medalist, and Mark Kondratyuk presented the main sensation of the competition in Chelyabinsk so far, taking third place.

Last year the free skating turned men's singles competitions upside down.

None of the intermediate three leaders made it to the podium, and the medals were eventually won by the skaters, who on the first day showed the fourth, eighth and even 13th results.

In Chelyabinsk, this story could well repeat itself.

The entire top ten fit into 20.12 points from each other, and the winner in theory could be someone from the second warm-up group.

However, almost no one took advantage of this second chance.

Evgeny Semenenko with a set of quadruples rittberger, sheepskin coat and salkhov fell three times and remained in 11th place.

Yegor Murashov not only failed to demonstrate quadruple jumps, but also performed triple jumps only three times, eventually losing six positions.

Pyotr Gumennik failed with triple axels and could not rise above the seventh position.

Only Anton Shulepov, who did not have quads in his application, was able to skate cleanly and take the lead before the last group of participants entered the ice.

He set the benchmark for everyone at 249.89 points.

Artyom Kovalev, who opened the strongest warm-up, could not surpass these not the highest numbers.

He started the program under the Queen medley with a cascade with a quadruple salchow and triple sheepskin coat, but in the second attempt of salchow, Evgeni Plushenko's student could not land correctly.

At the end of the program, Kovalev performed no less incendiary than Freddie Mercury on stage, but at the beginning he was very squeezed, and the judges did not disregard this.

Its total amount was 247.17 points.

The program of the world junior champion Andrei Mozalev was able to bring him a medal.

He immediately performed a quadruple flip and reinforced it with a cascade with a quadruple toe loop.

Mozalev paid great attention to the connections between jumps, and this immediately aroused sympathy for the young skater.

However, the favorable impression did not last long.

In the middle of the rental, he fell from a quadruple toe loop and tore off two triple axels.

The reserve after the short program was enough for Mozalev to bypass Shulepov by 3.03 points, but in the free program he lost to the skater without jumping in four turns.

Mozalev remained in first place after Alexander Samarin's performance.

He did not dare to start rolling with a quadruple lutz and performed a toe loop, which still ended in a fall.

His skating felt heavy, and this led to more and more mistakes in the jumps.

The judges gave Samarin very generous components, but this still did not help the European vice-champion to take a high position.

But another student of Svetlana Sokolovskaya created a sensation.

Mark Kondratyuk took third place after the short program and already had the right to be proud of himself, but the debutant of the Russian championships did not stop there.

In his free program, the 17-year-old skater cleanly performed two quadruple salchows, and after that even a fall on a cascade with a triple axel could not deprive him of a medal.

Kondratyuk, who had only seventh place at the Russian Cup stages, scored 260.31 points and guaranteed himself a bronze medal.

Mikhail Kolyada was the next on the ice.

No one doubted that his program "White Crow" would overshadow all previous performances, but the two-time champion of Russia had to reinforce his amazing skating with high-quality jumps.

The student of Alexei Mishin confidently coped with this - after two clean quad sheepskin coats he could be congratulated on his victory.

Kolyada still stumbled on a triple axel, but this still gave no reason to doubt his final success.

He surpassed Kondratyuk by almost 36 points, eventually stopping at around 296.15 points.

Makar Ignatov was able to intervene in the final distribution of medals.

A year ago, he was the leader after the short program, but he lost all his advantage and was left with nothing.

This time he kept the second place.

After performing the signature quadruple rittberger, Ignatov gave occasion to worry several times due to uncertain landings, but still finished the program with his head held high and scored 265.37 points in two runs.