Women's competitions at the stage of the Grand Prix in figure skating in Turin went according to a scenario that was completely atypical for recent seasons.
Fans could still imagine that after the short program, the leadership would be held not by three Russians, as was the case in previous tournaments in Canada and the USA, but only by two.
But it was extremely difficult to believe that the intermediate first place would not go to any of them.
However, this is exactly what happened - the Belgian Luna Hendrix bypassed Maya Khromykh, and Anna Shcherbakova, and Sofya Samodurova, reviving the intrigue in this discipline.
The figure skater, who took fifth place at the last world championship, avoided serious mistakes and showed no less difficult program than her main competitors.
At the same time, not only Hendrix took advantage of the misfires of Khromykh and Shcherbakova.
The Japanese woman Satoko Miyahara was separated from the first three by less than a point, her compatriot Mai Mihara lost another four-tenths.
The Russians should not have expected that the medals would float into their hands, even taking into account the fact that both of them announced quadruple jumps for free skates - Khromykh planned two sheepskin coats, and Shcherbakova one flip, which this season has not yet submitted to her.
There were two more reasons to be afraid of Japanese skaters.
Firstly, they also have high competition in the country for getting into the Olympic team, and each tournament passes through the prism of a quick selection to it.
Secondly, at least Mihara still had good chances to qualify for the Grand Prix finals thanks to the fourth place in Canada, so she needed a medal in Turin.
And the champion of the 2019 Universiade in Krasnoyarsk managed to make a strong move in the dispute over getting on the podium.
Mihara's performance was impeccable, she cleanly performed all her non-standard stages and received good bonuses for almost all elements.
Her program, which has been running for two years now, lacked only strong components, but even without them, the Japanese woman broke her two personal records, set just a week ago.
Mihara scored a total of 214.95 points.
Miyahara performed no less impressively, but her release to the opera "Tosca" was not clean.
The 2015 vice-champion of the world was constantly pursued by under-rotation and mistakes on landings.
Without them, she could confidently claim a medal, but in the end she did not even bypass her compatriot.
Anna Shcherbakova was the next on the ice in a new burgundy dress. Until recently, it was not clear what the first jump in the free program should have been expected from the world champion. Although she announced a flip, on the morning rolling she tried to perform the lutz and fell off him. As a result, Anna returned to the original plan and made the right decision. Shcherbakova confidently entered the quadruple flip and performed it flawlessly for the first time since the last Russian championship.
Further, in her program, combining music from the series "The Master and Margarita" with "Requiem" by Mozart, she had to cope with the Lutz - Rittberger cascade, which had let the athlete down the day before. Shcherbakova coped with him and even scored as many points for him as for her only quad. In general, all jumps on this day were given to the Russian woman with surprising ease, which only pushed the judges to a generous reward for the athlete. Shcherbakova scored 165.05 points for free skating - she has not yet conquered so many at international starts. The total score was 236.78 points, and this is the second result of the season in the world after the record scores of Kamila Valieva.
To surpass this result, Maya Khromykh did not have enough either two quadruple sheepskin coats or a small margin after the short program.
The 15-year-old figure skater confidently coped with her quads, as well as with the cascades in the second half of the rental to music from the Moulin Rouge.
But one single misfire gave the judges a reason to hold back the assessment of the Grand Prix debutante.
Khromykh barely stayed on her feet after the triple rittberger, after which she still could not cope with the path of steps.
A chasm formed between her and Shcherbakova in technical assessment and in components.
At the end of two days, Khromykh scored 226.35 points - an excellent, but far from the maximum result for her.
The competition was finished by Luna Hendrix, who, after the extravaganza performed by Shcherbakova, had no chance of winning.
However, she was not going to give up.
The Belgian skater again won a standing ovation from the fans with her clean and adult skating, in which she clearly surpassed Khromykh.
As a result, she really scored more points both for components and as bonuses to her elements.
But the lack of ultra-si jumps still did not allow Hendrix to count on silver.
However, her bronze has already become a historical achievement - the Belgian figure skaters have never won medals at the Grand Prix stages before.