Dancing on Ice

Before the start of the competitive part of the Channel One Cup, the teams of Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva announced their names.

The skaters chosen by the Olympic champion were nicknamed "The Red Machine" and their rivals became known as the "First Time".

The choice of Zagitova's team was appreciated by many Russian hockey players - Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Kirill Kaprizov even recorded video messages wishing the skaters good luck.

It fell to the ice dancers to open short skates.

Almost all of them coped with their main task - to avoid serious mistakes and not lose points that go to the team's piggy bank.

The first to go out on the ice were Sofia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko.

For their performance under "Burlesque" they received 79.04 points.

Annabel Morozov and Andrey Bagin, who prepared new costumes specially for this start, responded adequately to the dancers of Medvedeva's team and scored 80.54 points.

Further, Anastasia Skoptsova and Kirill Alyoshin became the leaders for a short time - even with the first level of Finnstep, they received 81.42 points from the judges.

But they were immediately overshadowed by Alexander Stepanov and Ivan Bukin.

The champions of Russia received as much as 90.75 points for their rhythm dance to music from the Moulin Rouge - in official competitions this would have been a new world record.

Both duos represented Medvedeva's team, which with such results could no longer miss the leadership after the dancers' competition.

Moreover, Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Yegor Bazin were the first who nevertheless made a gross mistake in their rhythm dance.

The partner settled on twizzles, and for this the couple received only 79.13 points.

Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureiro tried to reduce the backlog of Zagitova's team.

They skated great to the music from The Greatest Showman and got 85.76 points.

The first round of the Channel One Cup remained with the Time of the First - Medvedeva's team took the lead by almost six points.

Men

Then the singles entered the fight, whose scatter of points could be much higher than that of the dancers - one fall or one pure quadruple jump could significantly affect the tournament position.

This was clearly demonstrated by Makar Ignatov.

Figure skater Zagitova showed a wonderful quadruple rittberger and a cascade with a quadruple toe loop.

If not for the landing on two feet from the triple axel, the judges would definitely give him more than a hundred points.

As a result, the vice-champion of the country brought the team 99.81 points.

Andrey Mozalev failed to support his partner - he tore off both the flip and the sheepskin coat, left without a cascade.

For this, he scored only 79.13 points.

But Medvedeva's team also had one weak link.

Alexander Samarin has not yet gained the ideal form, which brought him medals at international competitions.

He, too, was left without quadruple jumps and a cascade, and the judges even rated him worse than Mozalev - by 78.07 points.

Fans of figure skating were looking forward to the return of Dmitry Aliev - due to illness, he missed the Russian championship and performed little in general this season.

The beginning of his "Masquerade" was very promising - he showed a cascade with a triple lutz, and a quadruple toe loop, and a triple axel.

But on the last path of steps, Aliyev unexpectedly fell back and fell.

The jury had no choice but to put 93.72 for a very decent rental of the European champion.

Two figure skaters Medvedeva finished the men's round, and both did not let their team down.

Mark Kondratyuk not only fought for a quadruple toe loop, but also showed, perhaps, the most interesting choreography that day, having received 96.89 points in the end.

And the best short skating among men was shown by the current champion of the country Mikhail Kolyada.

To score a fantastic 105.42 points, he didn't even have to perform two quadruple jumps - it was enough to cope with a problematic triple axel.

By the middle of the first day, Medvedeva's team was already 13.5 points ahead of the Red Car.

  • Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin perform at the Channel One Cup

  • RIA News

  • © Alexander Wilf

Couples

In pair skating, Zagitova's team had a chance to seize the initiative.

The first to go out on the ice were Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, and they could not do without blots - the skaters from "Time of the First" could not show a good flip throw and were limited to 77.80 points.

At the same time, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov showed an impeccable Bolero.

The couple, which can objectively be considered the best in the world at the moment, earned their 83.61 points, which exceeded the official record of Boykova and Kozlovsky set at the European Championship 2020.

The performance of Tarasova and Morozov really met all the criteria for a world record, except for one - after all, they can only be set at international starts.

Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov did not allow the Red Machine to complete the dash.

They also performed almost perfectly, making only a small mistake on the parallel spin.

For short skating, which Tamara Moskvina's students rarely succeed completely, they received a little more than 80 points.

Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin closed the doubles tournament and did not count on the same points - they were let down by the throw and the lower level of difficulty of the elements (75.73 points).

As a result, Zagitova's team reduced the gap, but by only one point.

Women

The girls' competition at the Channel One Cup immediately began with the premiere - Elizaveta Tuktamysheva from Medvedeva's team presented a new short program to the song Billie Eilish.

But the hire of the 2015 world champion did not work out, she could not perform the trademark triple axel.

And although then Tuktamysheva showed a more difficult set of jumps than she was at the Russian Championship, this did not help her to escape - she received only 70.38 points.

Anna Shcherbakova had a real chance to lead her team forward, and she took advantage of it.

The brilliant performance of the champion of Russia with flawless jumps and a difficult rotation between them cost 82.89 points - "Red Machine" with this one rental eliminated all the lag.

Medvedeva's team began to rectify the situation, but did not fully succeed in this.

Maya Khromykh, who replaced Alena Kostornaya, unexpectedly fell when approaching a double axel.

Although she did the jump itself, the overall impression of the rental was slightly spoiled.

As a result - 75.05 points.

Alexandra Trusova followed.

She did not take risks and try to execute the triple axel, and without this element she could only count on 77.86 points - this was not enough to return the team to the lead.

Kamila Valieva alone brought all the efforts of the First Time to nothing.

With the first jump, she performed a triple axel cleanly and with her hands raised up.

The 14-year-old skater backed him up with an excellent flip, and a cascade of lutz - toe loop, and the most difficult spins.

The judges awarded Valieva 90.25 points - this was another failed world record, which exceeded the official achievement of Alena Kostornaya by almost five points.

The first day of the Channel One Cup ended with a performance by Daria Usacheva.

Another junior from Zagitova's team performed without a single mistake and even got maximum levels for all non-jumping elements.

As a result, she scored more than 80 points - it is difficult to count on such marks without the most difficult jumps, but Usacheva deserved them.

Skaters from Zagitova's team showed three best results in the short program and brought their team ahead by 18.5 points.

On Sunday, Red Machine will try to keep its handicap, but Medvedeva's team will have more than one chance to drastically change the tournament situation.