The Budapest Trophy tournament gave the fans an exciting confrontation between Anna Shcherbakova and Maya Khromykh.
The first part of the battle between the reigning world champion and yesterday's junior ended with the victory of the more experienced skater.
However, her performance once again demonstrated that the athlete is not in her best shape.
In an arbitrary, a compatriot could well compete with her.
Much depended on whether the native of Moscow would be able to perform the first quad since December.
However, the runs on Sunday left a feeling of anxiety, because both were wrong.
The leader fell not only from a quadruple flip, but also a triple salchow in a cascade with a triple lutz through an oiler.
The opponent was also unable to cleanly execute her two ultra-si elements - sheepskin coats.
The first on the ice from the Russians was Sofia Samodurova, who was initially unable to throw the glove to her friends in the national team, since her program turned out to be much simpler.
Plus, the pupil of Alexei Mishin allowed a fall on a triple salchow.
This did not prevent her from predictably closing the top three with a total of 190.91 points.
Then it was Lame's turn.
It was curious whether the 15-year-old figure skater would be able to cope with her nerves at the decisive moment, or whether she would falter and would not be able to overtake Shcherbakova.
She immediately got a reason to get nervous.
The Russian woman made a blot on the road from a quadruple sheepskin coat.
The young athlete showed that she can take a punch perfectly.
Then she perfectly performed a cascade of a quadruple sheepskin coat - a triple sheepskin coat and also performed all the other elements cleanly.
And Khromykh's skating to the music from Moulin Rouge looked really mesmerizing.
The only thing was that she was not credited with a triple lutz, since the skater at that time jumped two quadruple and two triple sheepskin coats and could no longer repeat the elements.
On this, Maya lost about seven to eight points.
One way or another, yesterday's junior had 152.09 points for an arbitrary and a total of 224.91 points.
It was up to Shcherbakova to decide the fate of the first place. She needed to do a quad to get a chance to maintain her position. Unfortunately, Anna again failed to cope with the task and once again fell from a quadruple flip. After that, the reigning world champion no longer risked and calmly skated her free skate to the Master and Margarita. She cleanly performed a cascade of a triple flip - a triple toe loop, two double axels, a cascade of a triple lutz - a triple rittberger, a cascade of a triple lutz - oiler - triple salchow and a triple flip. Tutberidze's ward met the announcement of the assessment without unnecessary emotions, realizing that the second would remain.
This is what happened.
For an arbitrary, Anna received 147.97 points, and in total - 222.73.
Both results are the worst in her adult career, since the 2019 Lombardia Trophy tournament, where the skater made her debut.
Shcherbakova also suffered her first defeat since January 2020.
Then at the championship of the continent, Alena Kostornaya was ahead of her.
The entire previous season, the athlete remained unattainable, but in Hungary she unexpectedly lost to Khromykh.
And most importantly, she again failed to cope with the quads.
Maya, on the other hand, managed to gain the upper hand in her debut competition in adult figure skating and made an application to become a member of the Russian Olympic team.
So, the Budapest Trophy, as expected, ended with the triumph of Tutberidze's team, and the team promptly congratulated their athletes.
“Congratulations to Maya Khromykh and Anna Shcherbakova with gold and silver medals at the Budapest Trophy international competition.
We are working on, ”reads the post of the team on Instagram.
The awards ceremony attracted as much attention as the competition itself.
Firstly, the podium itself was not there.
The organizers laid a red carpet right on the ice, next to which they put three numbers: 1, 2 and 3, according to the occupied places.
Secondly, they did not have a sufficient number of Russian flags, although one could easily assume that the entire three are occupied by Russian figure skaters.
And if Khromykh and Samodurova got modern tricolors, then Shcherbakova - a sample of the early 90s with azure and scarlet colors instead of blue and red.
However, Anna was not embarrassed.
Finally, the participants were strictly forbidden to hug in order to protect them from infection with the coronavirus.
The announcer once again reminded about the rules before the ceremony.
But after the Russians, as if nothing had happened, they posed for photographers together.
Experts were also satisfied with the results of the tournament.
So, the famous coach Alexander Zhulin emphasized that he liked the programs of athletes from the Tutberidze group.
In his opinion, both are made "with the expectation of the championship."
“It's just that Khromykh skated better this time: she almost cleanly performed the first quadruple, and the second one turned out to be clean and twisted.
Therefore, her victory was not surprising - it was expected.
Anya went to a quadruple flip, but fell, at the moment she is a little worse prepared.
But she remains our world champion, and I am sure she will only continue to improve, ”the Sport24 expert quotes.
At the same time, he called the program of the current champion of the planet more deliberate and “feminine-rich”.
“Anya herself has also become more feminine: not such a fluttering moth, but a very beautiful girl.
With Maya, everything will become clear when the stages of the Grand Prix and the Russian Championship take place.
It seems to me that the music from the free program suits her.
The girl is bright and artistic.
She also has a chic short one.
You just need to jump all jumps cleanly, "Zhulin added.
In turn, according to Tatyana Tarasova, the final victory of the 15-year-old athlete was read even after a short one.
“She added, keep it up, well done!
As for Khromykh's chances of getting to the Olympics, let's not guess.
Everyone has a chance.
Therefore, we will wait and watch with pleasure, ”the coach emphasized.
However, she complained that all Russian women in Hungary were not without blunders.
“At this tournament, our girls performed a set of basic elements, triple jumps easily and competently.
Question one - fourfold.
And the axel is 3.5 turns.
Nobody jumped it.
Anya and Maya wanted to make a quadruple.
But one fell from the flip, and the second made a toe loop with a triple toe loop in a cascade, and the second tore off.
The question of girls' assessments now completely depends on the quads - at this tournament the referees clearly showed us this.
With the refereeing everything was in order, they just made it clear that the main thing is their pure execution of the quadruples, ”added Tarasova.