When skaters say (and they do it often) that the main thing at the Grand Prix is the occupied place, and not the points received, they are right in their own way.
The men's tournament, which, with a more than mediocre rental, brought Mikhail Kolyada to the number of finalists of the series, served as a vivid confirmation of this.
But ice dancing with world champions Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov among the participants stood apart in this regard. By definition, no one could compete with the Russian duo in Sochi. A much tougher struggle unfolded at the Japanese stage of the NHK Trophy in Tokyo, where Sinitsina and Katsalapov performed in rhythm dance practically on an equal footing with the Americans Madison Chock / Evan Bates, and the final gap of four points was in Russian favor not so much because of the difference in class, thanks to the unexpected fall of Bates at the very beginning of the free dance. If this embarrassment had not happened, the results would have been much denser.
Victoria and Nikita have never crossed paths with their main opponents, four-time world champions Gabriela Papadakis / Guillaume Sizeron this season (but Alexander Stepanova and Ivan Bukin twice hit the French tank), but the feeling of rivalry did not weaken from this. Rather, on the contrary: in anticipation of the first face-to-face confrontation in the final, where both pairs eventually came out with the maximum number of points, some productive parallels constantly suggested themselves.
In this correspondence duel, the French went noticeably ahead.
They scored more than 220 points at their stages twice, while the Sinitsina / Katsalapov total in Tokyo was 215.44.
On Friday, the Russian duo slightly improved their Japanese result in rhythm dance (86.81), but they could not fully rejoice at this: Papadakis / Sizeron got 89.08 in Grenoble, gaining 221.25 on the sum of two performances.
It is possible, of course, to consider the indicated confrontation far-fetched and existing exclusively in the minds of journalists, but this is hardly really the case.
The coach of world champions Alexander Zhulin too often compared his own wards with the French in interviews and did not hide that he dreamed not only of bringing his pair to Olympic gold, but to do it in the same style in which recognized leaders have been dancing for many years.
In other words, beat the favorite with their own weapon.
Therefore, I wanted, without waiting for a personal meeting of the duets in the Grand Prix finals in Osaka, to understand how the struggle between the dancers could be real.
Moreover, in Sochi, nothing prevented the Russians from achieving a record result: the problems associated with Katsalapov's back injury, by his own admission, were left behind.
Doctors have found a treatment option that allows Nikita to work at full strength.
Plus - a native audience, Olympic ice ridden to centimeters, loyal, as is always the case at home stages, refereeing, and no serious competition.
The rhythm dance was further confirmed: the closest pursuers, Italians Charlene Guignard / Marco Fabbri, stopped at a distance of more than seven points from Victoria and Nikita.
In other words, the Italian pair could not be taken into account at all as potential rivals.
But there was an interesting detail: at the Grand Prix stage in Canada, Gignard / Fabbri became the second, gaining 200.05, and actually caught up with Stepanova / Bukin in terms of ratings this season.
Therefore, it was interesting to see how much their grades will grow in Sochi.
And there was no doubt that they would become higher: in the interval between the two stages of the Grand Prix, the duo skated well at the Challenger series tournament in Graz, Austria, where they won with personal records in free dance and total points.
By coincidence, it was these dancers who were to oust Alexander and Ivan from the number of finalists.
To do this, the Italians just needed to repeat their Friday result - to become the second, which did not look like an unsolvable task: the Canadians Lawrence Fournier-Baudry / Nikolai Sorense, with all their merits, frankly did not pull up to the second stage.
Actually, like this, without any intrigue, the tournament came to an end.
Guignard / Fabbri recorded, as expected, the second amount (203.71), slightly increasing their Vancouver result, Sinitsina / Katsalapov - the first.
The rental of the Russian duo turned out to be a little blurry, with a rotation error and a total of almost ten points below the personal record (the dancers scored 211.72 in total), but this was the very case when it was worth remembering that the marks on the way to the final in the Grand at - still not the main thing.
Commenting on the blot at the press conference, Katsalapov was calm.
He explained that the error was largely unexpected, but that it was easy to adjust.
As well as working on supports, for the duration of the execution of which the couple was punished with two penalty points.
Sinitsyna agreed with her partner.
“We have time to fix everything and come to the Grand Prix finals in an excellent mood,” the athlete emphasized.
As for the performances of other Russian couples, they failed to please the fans.
Anastasia Skoptsova / Kirill Aleshin took the final sixth place, and Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva / Yegor Bazin - eighth.