The fourth stage of the Russian championship series was preceded by several permutations, but the competition only benefited from this.
First of all - single tournaments.
So, Sofia Muravyova appeared among the participants, who missed the previous start in Kazan due to a minor injury.
More serious damage did not allow Yevgeny Semenenko to go on the ice in the same place.
Moreover, for the ward of Tatiana and Alexei Mishin, the tournament in Moscow will be the first of the season.
Perhaps the upcoming performance of Evgeny is the most anticipated event of the tournament: he has wonderful new programs that were demonstrated at open skates in the capital.
The free dance, staged under Korean rap, could in general become an adornment of many past competitions, but Evgeny had to take a break - the leg injury received at the summer training camp in Courchevel worsened and, according to Mishin, was aggravated just at open rentals.
So it turned out that at the Moscow stage two top wards of the Mishinsky school would meet at once, which was not at all planned from the beginning.
It is more difficult for Mikhail Kolyada in this confrontation.
A long streak of bad luck has created a situation where he needs to constantly prove something: the ability to jump, to cope with himself, to take a hit when competing with those who are running out from behind.
Plus - very serious classic programs that almost completely lose their charm if errors begin.
Plus - the most serious opponents.
In addition to Semenenko, this is Pyotr Gumennik with four quads in the free program, Makar Ignatov, for whom this start will be his debut, as for Semenenko.
In general, Kolyada will have to work hard to show a better result than at the first stage in Megasport.
There, let me remind you, the skater won the short program, but remained fifth in the free program.
Another student of Mishin, the 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, stirred up the audience with a recent performance of a quadruple sheepskin coat in training.
Accordingly, the question arose: will he jump or not?
And will Lisa even try to do it?
Introducing a jump into an arbitrary one, where there are already two triple axels, is a daunting task, especially for an older figure skater, but axels alone may not be enough for an equal fight with rivals like Sofya Akatieva and Sofya Muravyova.
On the one hand, Tuktamysheva has long shown with her whole appearance that she skates not for the sake of victories, but solely for her own pleasure, but if this is true, she only makes her performance easier, removing unnecessary stress.
It definitely won’t be boring: Akatyeva, for sure, will do everything in her power to prove that the victory at the first stage of the Grand Prix over Kamila Valieva was not a stellar moment, but the beginning of the ascent.
Although, in fact, nothing needs to be proved here: it is quite obvious that this skater is now the leader of Russian women's skating.
In the sports couples tournament, all attention should have been focused on the 2021 world champions Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, if not for the sensational October victory in Moscow by Natalia Khabibullina and Ilya Knyazhuk.
The debutants of the adult season were ahead of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, and you should not explain the success only by the fact that the vice-champions of the Olympic Games 2020 were grossly mistaken in the free program.
Rather, it is time to say that the pupils of Sergei Dobroskokov are a fairly vivid example of a new wave of sports couples.
With the most difficult triple jumps (for Khabibullina and Knyazhuk, these are lutz and rittberger) and with a claim to master and include in the programs a twist and throw in four turns.
Mishina and Gallyamov, according to their mentor Tamara Moskvina, are also working on complication, and, honestly, it is unlikely that any of the rivals will be able to impose real competition on them at the upcoming stage, but such attempts will certainly be made.
The dance tournament has no pronounced intrigue only at first glance.
At the September open screenings, Vasilisa Kaganovskaya and Valery Angelopol, Irina Khavronina and Dario Chirizano made a strong impression with their productions, and even then it was possible to say that these duets would definitely not be lost during the season.
At the first stage of the series in Moscow, Kaganovskaya and Angelopol came second, losing to Anabel Morozova and David Narizhny with a total of 189.04 points.
At the next stage in Sochi, Khavronina and Chirizano also showed the second result - 190.87, losing to Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Yegor Bazin.
When two couples fight so tightly, it's always interesting.
It is around this confrontation that the whole struggle in dances will be built.
And as a separate bonus, it is quite possible to name the support of Kaganovskaya and Angelopol.
They definitely deserve it