Valieva's motivation, the return of Mozalev and Danielyan: the intrigues of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating in Kazan

The main star of the third stage of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating is, of course, Kamila Valieva.

As the well-known producer Ilya Averbukh rightly noted, the leadership of the Beijing martyr among all the favorites of the tournament does not depend on which of the Russian single skaters will be her rival.

In Kazan, Daria Usacheva and Sofia Muravyova were supposed to fall into the category of opponents of the main prima, but both were forced to refuse to start due to a prolonged recovery from injuries.

Is it a loss?

Undoubtedly.

It is clear that the Kazan public will willingly come to look at Valieva even if she is alone on the ice, but from the point of view of intrigue, the degree has dropped significantly.

In the current situation, there is no need for Camila to do the maximum, that is, a quadruple jump, no stress is expected for the skater either, despite the fact that Ksenia Sinitsyna, who was quite strong in the old days, will perform at the tournament, who became the silver medalist of the 2020 Youth Olympic Games.

The 18-year-old student of Svetlana Panova did not perform for almost a year, did not participate in open skates, so returning to starts after such a break is a test in itself.

In the off-season, a miniature Muscovite tried herself in pair skating.

This did not last too long, but the fact itself suggests that the skater did not do this from a good life.

Perhaps she felt that things were not going too well in singles, or the interruptions in training ice due to the repair of the rink affected.

Be that as it may, Sinitsyna managed to prepare for the season.

I put on a new free program, leaving last year's short one, trying to restore the quadruple sheepskin coat.

Another question is that she is unlikely to be able to get ahead of Valieva, and the point here is not only who and how will skate.

Everyone has already observed a more than loyal attitude towards Camila at the first of the Grand Prix stages, and, most likely, history will repeat itself in Kazan.

Competitors are not foreseen for Tarasova - Morozov in the competition of sports couples.

The only intrigue of the tournament is whether Evgenia and Vladimir will be able to skate their Olympic free program with the same inspiration as they skated the short program at the first stage of the series.

In any case, a repetition of the horror that the audience contemplated in Megasport should not happen even according to the theory of probability.

If not for the accident that resulted in the duo giving first place to Natalya Khabibullina and Ilya Knyazhuk, the Kazan tournament could have been an opportunity for all the favorites to qualify for the March final of the series with the maximum number of points.

That is, with two victories.

Now only Valieva, Annabel Morozov - David Narizhny in dancing and Dmitry Aliev - in men's skating have such an opportunity.

And if the potential victory of the wards of the country's most extensive dance coaching staff is beyond doubt, then Aliyev will face two fairly strong opponents at once - Andrey Mozalev and Artur Danielyan.

In other words, any serious mistake by each of the award candidates can lead to the most unpredictable placement on the podium.

Despite the fact that the competition in the men's tournament is the highest, the competition has lost the lion's share of its attractiveness due to the absence of Evgeny Semenenko.

According to his coaches Tatyana and Alexei Mishin, he did not recover from a knee injury that he received at the summer training camp in Courchevel and aggravated at open skates.

For this reason, the skater previously missed the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial and the second stage of the St. Petersburg Cup and only now began to restore his jumps.

Danielyan will also have to deal with the consequences of a serious injury in Kazan.

The vice-champion of Europe in 2020 throughout the past season unsuccessfully struggled with an injury in CSKA, in the summer he decided on radical changes, having left for St. Petersburg to Evgeny Rukavitsyn, having received Aliyev and Makar Ignatov as sparring partners, but how effectively will Arthur be able to cope with a whole bunch of own problems, only the competitions will show, the first of which will take place in Kazan.