The degree of expectation for the start of the women's tournament was pumped up to the limit.
And it was not at all those athletes who, based on the results of short programs, located at the head of the standings, but Alexandra Trusova, who inflated him.
It’s not easy to remain indifferent when you watch or read about how a desperate girl hits landings from four different quadruple jumps into the ice twice a day and makes almost no mistakes.
Sasha did not have a very successful previous part of the season, but in Stockholm it was felt that the athlete had gained much more confidence than it was in the fall and winter.
She returned the triple axel to the short program, which she coped with in training as well as with five quads in free skates, the only question was whether the skater would be able to keep her cool when it came to the competition.
However, this applied to all athletes, without exception, claiming a high result.
In other words, all the strongest warm-up and Liza Tuktamysheva, who performed under the first starting number in the penultimate group.
In training, the 2015 world champion coped with her jumps excellently, but this did not give her any preliminary guarantees.
Like everyone else.
In any case, this is how the famous Russian coach Inna Goncharenko, whose student Elena Radionova fought on equal terms with Tuktamysheva in 2015, Liza's most successful season, assessed what was happening at the Globe Arena.
“Training and competition are completely different things.
Even the final warm-up on the day of the show means nothing, no matter how people skate there.
Yes, now everyone is discussing Trusova's five quadruple jumps and her triple axel, and this is a serious part of the overall strategy.
Personally, I think that in this way Sasha's team decided to show that they managed to bring their sportswoman to the main start competently and on time, ”the specialist noted.
According to her, when she and Radionova began to travel to serious competitions, they worked out all the trainings to the maximum in the same way.
“I knew Lena needed it.
That she should draw attention to herself, should be remembered.
We showed everything that we can: jumps, spins, cascades.
Whether you like it or not, such things affect the specialists, the opponents, and for the athlete herself it is important to try to skate the program several times on a new site, on an unusual ice.
But everyone has their own strategy.
Someone tries not to show too much before the start.
A person comes to training, does the minimum there - only so that the feeling of ice is not lost in the legs, and this also does not mean anything.
Only the preparatory period matters, that is, the work that the athlete did earlier, before he arrived at the main start.
Everything else is just a part of the overall game, ”Goncharenko added.
By the time Tuktamysheva entered the ice, the American Karen Chen took the lead.
Her result of 74.40 could be considered too high for Lisa only six years ago: in that very victorious season for herself, the St. Petersburg figure skater scored 77.62 at the World Championships for her short program.
It was then that Tuktamysheva first included a triple axel in the short program, and it happened at the Globen Arena, where the European Championship was held in January 2015.
Over the time that has passed since then, the bar has risen greatly, and Tuktamysheva herself has remained almost the only adult athlete in the world capable of meeting this bar.
By the current season, she has complicated the technical part of skiing due to a more complex cascade with a triple lutz, although the addition turned out to be not very significant: in 2015 in Shanghai, the skater jumped a simpler cascade of two triple sheepskin coats, but performed it in the second half of the program.
Another question is that it was not very legitimate to make comparisons with the championship season: then Lisa went to the main start a whole series of eight or nine tournaments, including two major ones - the Grand Prix finals and the European Championship, and dashed off the programs to absolute automatism.
The cornerstone of success then was not only the complexity of the programs, but also Lisa's absolutely amazing ability to interact with the audience.
Start it up, and with it yourself.
When the audience roars and applauds while standing, it usually affects the judges and always benefits the athlete.
But in Stockholm, the skaters got a completely different reality: an echoing empty hall with stands extending to the ceiling.
And as a result, Tuktamysheva's perfectly performed program sounded far from as powerful as it could have, although Liza did the maximum possible in it: even for all three spins she got the highest, fourth level of difficulty and scored 78.86.
In the strongest warm-up, a Russian-Japanese meat grinder was anticipated with the participation of Trusova, Shcherbakova and three representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun, but a large-scale battle did not work out.
Trusova had the most advantageous starting number (in front of all rivals) in the final warm-up, and she, of course, could set the tone for the whole performance if she dared to jump a triple axel, as it was indicated in the pre-start application.
Moreover, it was completely logical to go for a jump: the first starting number allows the athlete to keep the muscles as warm as possible and ready for super tasks.
But Sasha did not include the trixel in the program.
Perhaps this was just the wrong decision.
If you believe the experience of the great Tatyana Tarasova, which she adhered to all the years of her active coaching work, if an athlete is ready to go all-in, you need to take risks.
Because any facilitation of the task often leads to the fact that concentration is lost, and even simpler and more confident elements begin to pour in inexplicably.
It seems that this is exactly what happened to Trusova - after a double axel and a triple flip, she was left without a cascade, unable to attach a second jump to the triple lutz, and went to the eighth position, which after the performances of all the strongest turned into 12th.
Shcherbakova, however, once again confirmed the reputation of an indestructible competitive fighter: it was not even necessary to consider the protocol with detailed estimates to see that there would most likely be no equal to the Russian athlete on that day (81.00).
But Rika Kihira was found.
An unmistakable ride with a triple axel gives the Japanese woman an excellent opportunity to start the final part of her performance on Friday, practically on an equal footing with Anna (79.08).
Japan also had its own loser that day - Satoko Miyahara.
The four-time champion of the country fell from a triple lutz, which in the preliminary application was in a cascade with a sheepskin coat, and her attempt to attach a sheepskin coat to a rittberger at the very end of the rental failed.