The anticipation of a short program among women began to heat up the atmosphere of "Yubileiny" long before the start of the competition. Everything was unusual in this tournament, starting with the first issue of Kamila Valieva. The draw was generally bizarre: the first group included Valieva herself, Sofya Samodelkina and Alexandra Trusova, all with triple axels, that is, extremely charged for the battle. In the second six were world champions Anna Shcherbakova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, plus Sofya Samodurova, although the 2019 European champion could only be ranked among the strongest out of politeness: among all the participants in the Russian Championship, Samodurova had the lowest personal result recorded in the current season.
For exactly half of the 18 athletes, the national championship was their debut, but it was more of a secondary touch.
The main intrigue of the tournament, predictably, was which of the Russian singles would be able to win three Olympic tickets.
In contrast to the men's competition, there were so many worthy applicants for the coveted vacancies that the outcome of the women's tournament, in any case, could be considered tragic on Friday.
The American dance coach Igor Shpilband perfectly explained on the eve of the difficult situation for an athlete when he has to be the first to go out on the ice.
“The first start number is usually not very helpful to the perception. As well as the performance. The atmosphere in the hall does not have time to reach the level when it begins to be felt in the air. You go out on the ice, and the movement continues in the hall: spectators come in, look for their seats, sit down, talk ... I would like to use the energy of the hall, but it is not. When one athlete performs well, another does the same for him, it awakens interest and excitement and creates what we call a competitive atmosphere. An atmosphere within which something unusual and interesting is happening, ”the specialist emphasized.
These words Shpilband spoke about his dancing pair Diana Davis / Gleb Smolkin, who on Thursday opened the program in rhythm dance and skated there a little stiffly. But Valieva did not threaten the curse of the first number at all: by the time the girls appeared on the ice, the hall turned out to be decently warmed up by a “dancer” in the form of the final of male singles.
The performance of the Russian prima, as usual, turned out to be flawless: the exorbitant amount of 90.38 points for the program with a triple axel meant that no one would get Kamil. This reserve will be enough for the skater even if she limits herself to one quadruple jump in an arbitrary rental. In part, the inaccessibility was immediately clearly confirmed: Samodelkina very soundly (including in the part of the triple axel) and very soulfully fulfilled her program, which is almost as good as Valiev's in basic difficulty, but scored only 76.74 points.
The first drama was not long in coming: Aleksandra Trusova, contrary to her pre-start intentions to limit herself to a double axel in the short program, went for a triple jump and once again failed to cope with it - she fell.
It is clear that having an impressive supply of ultra-si in an arbitrary, you can play a lot, but already on Friday there was some danger that Sasha, with her usual passion, would begin to recoup in the final, as it happened more than once, and nothing good would come of it.
The second alarm bell sounded barely audible after Shcherbakova's speech.
It would be more correct to say that he rang out a little earlier, when one of the nine debutantes, Sofya Muravyova, coped with her rental absolutely brilliantly (there was also a magnificent triple axel there).
She moved to an intermediate second place after Valieva with a score of 81.87 points. Shcherbakova lost only 0.41 points to her, but in fact, the gap should have been noticeably larger, since the young ward of Evgeni Plushenko was judged as it is, and the world champion was not the best in speed and sliding performance, without ultra-si elements and with very the problem edge on the triple lutz (the take-off moment was shown very well on the screen in slow motion) was given more than generous marks. At the same time, in terms of basic technical complexity, Anna lost about four points to Valieva, Muravyova, Trusova and Samodelkina.
However, Sophia did not manage to keep the second place.
After the end of the competition, one point was removed from her for a delay in the start, which allowed Shcherbakova to rise one line higher.
Nevertheless, the rental of the debutante still left the most favorable impression.
Fortunately for more experienced and adult skaters, Muravyova does not pass into the adult season in terms of age and, accordingly, even with her result, did not pose any danger to those who on Friday began to share Olympic tickets on the ice of the St. Petersburg skating rink.
Fate loves the trinity, and Tuktamysheva received the third blow from her: she, like Trusova, was let down by the triple axel, from which the athlete fell.
71.28 - and only the seventh result before decisive rentals.
And if for Alexandra she can still decide in her favor in an arbitrary, then Lisa's Olympic chances after the axel was torn off became much more vague.
Although the third vacancy is still available both for one athlete and for another.
Maya Khromykh also failed her first performance: a blot and a double jump in a cascade brought her only ninth place.