The pursuit of Olympic tickets for Russian figure skaters has officially begun.
A national championship has started in St. Petersburg, and it fell to men to open it.
Their struggle for three places in the national team is interesting in that there is only one unambiguous favorite - Mikhail Kolyada.
Several athletes apply for the remaining two quotas at once, and this season they fail to maintain a balance of skill and stability.
The first on the ice of the Yubileiny sports complex was Alexander Samarin, who can just be classified as gifted, but the results do not confirm this title - this season the vice-champion of Europe was not even in the top five at the Grand Prix stages.
He especially needed to make a big leap forward in order not to be left without a medal.
Samarin was not afraid to take risks. He began his program to the soundtrack of "The Matrix" with a quadruple lutz, after which he could barely stay on his feet, but later managed to add a triple toe loop. And with the next element, Samarin unexpectedly decided to perform a quadruple flip, which he had not practiced for two years. The 23-year-old skater went very well on the jump and twisted it, but fell, hitting his head on the ice, blood was visible on his chin. Samarin finished the program to the end, and the judges decided to reward him for his act - for the program with a fall, he received a very high 94.23 points, to which he had never been close for the last two years.
But Samarin was quickly relegated to second place. The 2018 world champion among juniors Alexei Erokhov cleanly skated the program with a quadruple salchow and quadruple sheepskin coat, for which he received 95.24 points. It is interesting that he scored 53.66 points for technique - not a single Russian figure skater scored so many at the international starts of this season. If the components in national tournaments are often overestimated, then it would be difficult to argue with this estimate.
Until the end of the first warm-up, Erokhov was in the lead, although Dmitry Aliev could have moved him. The still reigning European champion went to simplify the program and abandoned the quadruple lutz, hoping to amaze the judges with the cleanliness of the rental. However, this did not work out. Aliyev was doing well until he tried to make a triple axel. Instead of a jump, a butterfly turned out, due to which the 22-year-old skater went to last place with an estimate of 86.40 points.
The leader did not change for a long time until Mark Kondratyuk came out on the ice.
The skater, thanks to whom Russia got the third quota for the Olympics, showed his best skating of the season with a quadruple sheepskin coat and a quadruple salchow in the second half of the program.
Ditching the Quad Lutz in his case was a brilliant idea.
The bronze medalist of the last year's championship of Russia scored 97.77 points, and it already looked like an attempt to gain a foothold in the final three.
But Kondratyuk was bypassed by the local favorite Yevgeny Semenenko, who was also involved in the maximum representation of Russians at the Olympics.
He did not avoid small mistakes, but, unlike the 18-year-old skater, he made a triple toe loop instead of a double in the cascade.
This turned out to be enough to outstrip Kondratyuk by 0.26 points even with smaller components.
Both skaters were supposed to be in the shadow of Mikhail Kolyada.
Going out on the ice to skate to the music from The Nutcracker, he showed with all his appearance that he would now step over the mark of 100 points.
Having performed beautifully a quadruple salchow in a cascade and a quadruple sheepskin coat, Kolyada faced an old and, apparently, an incorrigible problem - a butterfly on a triple axel.
Kolyada's program had everything to call it ideal, except for this ruined jump.
Because of him, he could not enter the top three in any way - even with fantastic and well-deserved components, the reigning champion of Russia turned out to be fourth with an estimate of 94.26 points.
The last of the real contenders for medals was Makar Ignatov. Having a quadruple rittberger among his trump cards, he could even aim at leadership. He really performed his crown jump with a good amplitude and a confident landing, but the judges had questions about the cascade with a quadruple sheepskin coat. In addition, the vice-champion of Russia was fined a point for skipping the program. But in total, Ignatov earned 95.84 points - this was enough for him for the third place.
According to the results of the short program, it did not become clear who more than others claimed medals and places in the national team.
All the first six fit within four points from each other, so on Friday they will have to fight again within themselves.
The only favorite, whose chances dropped to almost zero, turned out to be Aliyev, who now needs to go all-in to move up from his 12th place.