Trusova's failure

The second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating ended in Sochi, where Alexandra Trusova demonstrated her new images to fans and judges.

In choosing music for compositions, the coaching staff of Svetlana Sokolovskaya seems to listen to the athlete.

The day before, she said that she insisted on the track Ainsi Bas La Vida performed by Indila for a short program.

In the free skate, the audience heard the well-known song I Believe I Can Fly, which is very suitable for the figure skater who performed a record number of quadruple jumps at the Beijing Games.

However, the beginning of the season is not easy for Trusova, just like Kamila Valieva.

So far at the tournament, she has limited herself to only one element of ultra-c (on Sunday it was a quadruple lutz), but she could not perform it.

Although, according to the athlete, in training, the jump is already working out well.

“My first competition after the Olympics.

It's always been hard for me to perform, it's not about preparation, it's just like that.

I'm just worried.

Of course, the post-Olympic season is harder than it was.

But I tried.

I’ve been jumping Lutz for a long time,” Sasha explained.

However, coach Alexander Zhulin saw the cause of the problems not in excitement, but in the excess weight of the athlete.

In his opinion, while he is present, it will be very difficult for her to return the jumps.

As for other elements, they are given to Trusova easily.

But this is not enough to compete with the daring youth.

Sofia Samodelkina, after a failed short program, managed to pull herself together and skated perfectly under Ave Maria.

Another ward Sokolovskaya got both a quadruple salchow and all the other declared elements.

As a result, the athlete's content turned out to be 20 points more expensive than Sasha's.

Moreover, according to the skater, it was a simplified version of the performance.

“In fact, this rental was expected, I had to do salchow, like an axel, and a lutz-rittberger in a short one.

For me yesterday was a complete surprise what happened.

Somehow I even fell out, I did not understand what happened.

Today I am glad that the salchow turned out, we trained it a lot, we rolled in a bunch of salchow-axel, but this morning we decided to abandon the axel.

We decided that it’s clean, but we’ll pass with one, ”Samodelkina admitted.  

Adelia Petrosyan showed an incredible character.

She planned to perform two quadruple jumps.

However, at first she made the first one with a mistake, and then she fell from the second.

Because of this, the athlete might not have had enough of the advantage gained after the short program, since Sophia skated superbly.

Then the pupil of Eteri Tutberidze looked at her coach and, as if having received approval, for the third time tried to cleanly make an ultra-c element.

The sequence of the quadruple sheepskin coat - double axel was a success, and after that the young figure skater skated the composition cleanly to the end.

As a result, Petrosyan, even with two serious blots, outperformed Samodelkina by five points in complexity.

“Three quads were planned, two were included in the application, so that if something suddenly goes wrong at the start, there would be no surprise.

How difficult is the program?

Not easy.

There is a state of emptiness, detachment, and then you start to get out of it all: you start breaking, signs of insanity, and you get out of it.

We need to work hard on this and, of course, think a lot and convey all this, so we are working further, ”said the athlete. 

Interestingly, Petrosyan's score was lower than that of Valieva, who won the first stage of the Russian Grand Prix by falling from a quadruple sheepskin coat.

Fatigue Kondratyuk

In men's single skating, the intrigue largely died out after the results of the short program, since Mark Kondratyuk created a very big backlog after an excellent Saturday performance.

Nevertheless, Pyotr Gumennik did his best to correct the failure that occurred the day before, declaring four quadruple jumps.

Unfortunately, he did not succeed in fulfilling all his plans.

Fans saw two falls.

“The rittberger did not work out.

I came here and on the second day I forgot how to jump it.

This happens to me sometimes.

I do the same thing, but the result is different.

Perhaps the feeling of movement in your head changes a little and it seems to you that you are doing the same thing, but in fact it is a little different.

Perhaps because of some properties of the ice, maybe my shape.

The reasons are different, but you still need to fix it with one selection.

Today at the morning workout, I finally picked it up so that it started to work out for me stably.

And in the warm-up, I did it perfectly.

But at the box office I made a little mistake and did not leave.

I also fell off the triple axel at the end of the program, I just didn’t live up to it, ”admitted the athlete. 

The free program was not easy for Kondratyuk either.

He showed it for the first time.

But the difficulty was not in the debut, but in the physical form of the athlete.

He, like Gumennik, did not have enough strength for all the elements.

The skater also announced four quads and confidently performed two of them in the first half of the performance.

However, further Mark got tired and began to make mistakes: he made a butterfly instead of an axel and fell off the salchow. 

“About the last three and a half minutes, I already felt some problems, but we will roll, try, complicate the content.

I would like to go salchow and, perhaps, make the second quadruple lutz, ”Kondratyuk promised. 

As a result, the skater won the competition with a big advantage.

He scored almost 38 points more than Alexei Erokhov, who took second place.

The pupil of Victoria Butsaeva performed unsuccessfully on Sunday, breaking two jumps and a cascade.

However, the Gumennik slightly, but still conceded to him.

“Absolutely dissatisfied with my performance.

It was well prepared, but it did not work out, to be honest, nothing at all.

Very dirty, not a single clean complex element.

For the rental, I would put myself a one with a minus.

Why didn't it work?

Don't know.

He was very well prepared, morally well disposed.

Yesterday was a commotion, yes.

Today I already went out with a fighting spirit for a good rental.

I didn’t think about any places, points, I just wanted to do my job, ”Erokhov noted. 

Mistakes by Boikova and Kozlovsky

The performance in the free program by Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky was very reminiscent of the last stage and the performance of Evgenia Tarasova with Vladimir Morozov.

After a clean short composition with a triple loop, complex twist and release, the guys started to make mistakes.

Unlike the silver medalists of the Olympics, they did not miss the victory, but the impression of the performance remained blurry.

At the same time, the skaters noted that they continue to work on ultra-c elements, but so far they are in no hurry to show them at official starts.

As Kozlovsky explained, everything should be done in stages.

“Yes, we had to slightly change our training schedule, but at this stage we did an important thing for ourselves: at the official training we performed a quadruple twist – it was on Friday.

To insert an ultra-si element is to radically change the structure of the program, ”the athlete explained.

“For years we have been developing certain sensations, a certain energy consumption, but here everything is completely different.

The ultra-c element, especially in pair skating, requires more than just some physical strength - it requires perfect technique, skill and total control.

Since we are athletes already adults, not children, it requires gradual integration into the program,” he added. 

Unfortunately, Sunday was not without a terrible fall after Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin attempted to perform a triple flip throw.

At first, the partner could not get up for a long time, but then the couple continued the program.

As a result, the athletes could not get on the podium.

Although after the first day of the tournament they were third. 

Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Yegor Bazin won the dance by 20 points.

The partner again, like the day before, made an offensive mistake at the very beginning of the composition.

The figure skater lost her balance and touched the ice with her knee.

However, this oversight only cheered up the athletes, and then they skated cleanly and quite emotionally.

Elizaveta's blot did not prevent the judges from scoring high marks for Sweet Heart.

Moreover, the total result of the duet turned out to be significantly higher than even the winners of the first stage Annabel Morozov and David Narizhny.