Trusova's struggle, Lutfullin's quads and Samarin's difficulty: a consolidated rating of single skaters in the 2022/23 season

The ease of Samodelkina and the progress of Trusova

Is it worth drawing far-reaching conclusions on the already second not very successful start of Alexandra Trusova in the Russian Grand Prix series?

Sasha was third in the short program, showed the second result in the free program, which allowed the skater to take the overall second place.

Formally (according to the total points scored), Sasha performed better than at the second stage in Sochi, but the second position is, of course, not the result that Russian Rocket could arrange.

Add here the situation between the figure skater and Channel One, which is unwittingly public, and it’s time to ask the question: isn’t it time to completely forget about the heroes and dramas of the Olympic season and switch attention to others?

For example, to Sofia Samodelkina, who won victories in both programs in Samara and showed a completely working attempt at a quadruple salchow in the free program.

As a plus for Samodelkina, I would also write down how quickly the athlete managed to bring herself into perfect physical shape.

On the eve of her first start, Sofa told me how difficult it was.

And that you have to go to bed even earlier so that you don’t think about food in the evening.

At present, the topic of weight and appearance has actually migrated to the forbidden section, but if we talk about sports from the standpoint of professionalism, and not political correctness, it was the elimination of extra pounds that made it possible for Samodelkina to take another small step towards victory over jumps.

As for Trusova, the “Volga pirouette” left a strong feeling that the figure skater did not have enough lightness to return the quadruple lutz (the most beloved and reliable jump last season).

This is by no means a scam.

It sometimes takes more than a year to get out of the hole, which, as a rule, ends the Olympic Games for champions and prize-winners.

And we must pay tribute to Sasha: she copes with this.

The start in Samara showed this quite clearly.

Trusova's basic difficulty increased from 62.65 to 68.86, Sasha looked more confident in terms of choreography, and it becomes more and more obvious that both programs, seemingly hastily staged, turned out to be very successful.

Another question is that this did not improve the rating position.

But here it is already time to talk about the wolf law of big sport.

While we journalists are talking about the difficulties that an athlete faces after the Games, the younger ones are trying to grab everything that is available.

The parallel women's tournament at the ISU Grand Prix in Sapporo ended with the victory of the Korean Yelim Kim (she was 2.62 ahead of the world champion Kaori Sakamoto), which in fact can not be classified either as an outstanding, or, moreover, sensational.

In the free program, the Japanese woman made a butterfly instead of a triple loop, and this predetermined the result - completely uncompetitive at the Russian level.

1. (1) Sofia Akatyeva (Russia)

2. (2) Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (Russia)

3. (3) Kamila Valieva (Russia)

4. (4) Adelia Petrosyan (Russia)

5. (5) Sofia Muravyeva (Russia)

6. (6) Sofia Samodelkina (Russia)

7. (10)

(Russia)

8. (7) Ksenia Sinitsyna (Russia)

9. (8) Veronika Yametova (Russia)

10. (9) Luna Hendrix (Belgium)

Kondratyuk's back problems and Samarin's difficulty

The short program for men at the stage in Samara suggested that another such rental by Mark Kondratyuk, and in the ranking he would move the world champion, the Japanese Shomu Uno, from the first place - he competed in parallel in Sapporo.

The ward of Svetlana Sokolovskaya jumped two quadruple jumps, significantly surpassed Uno in basic difficulty (44.40 vs. 42.50), but the Japanese fell victim to an accident: he was left without a cascade and therefore lost the first part of the competition to compatriot Sota Yamamoto.

But the second rental turned everything upside down: Mark woke up in the morning from a spasm of the back muscles, and all attempts to somehow relieve the pain were in vain.

Kondratyuk went to the start, which meant the absence of discounts on physical condition, but the skater, as expected, failed to skate at his level.

Accordingly, the tournament immediately formed other heroes.

The first thing to highlight, of course, is the champion - Gleb Lutfullin.

An interesting fact: when Alexei Mishin began working with Mikhail Kolyada, many expected a unique result from this cooperation: it is not every day that an incredibly gifted athlete falls into the hands of an absolutely outstanding coach.

Although even before the appearance of the latter in his group, the most experienced mentor uttered a phrase with the deepest implication that you can forcibly lead a horse to a watering place, but even in this case you cannot force it to drink.

At the 2022 European Championships in Tallinn, I took the liberty of expressing sympathy to the Professor due to the fact that Kolyada was not among the participants in this championship, but Mishin reacted calmly.

He said that in the training process he has not experienced any disappointments for a long time, since he always has someone to work with.

How exactly this phrase should be interpreted is perfectly shown by the Russian Grand Prix: at the fourth stage in Moscow, Evgeny Semenenko performed excellently, and another ward of the outstanding coach Gleb Lutfullin became the triumphant of the fifth.

He perfectly performed a free program with four quadruple jumps (two more quadruple jumps took place in a short one), and Gleb is inferior to Aliyev, who currently leads the rating of singles, not so much in technique and expressiveness, but in the insufficient weight of his own merits in the eyes of arbitrators.

But this, as you know, is a business.

Especially for those who hold the lead among all single skaters in terms of the total number of quads landed (12).

Alexander Samarin showed his best rental at the fifth stage.

His free program, as in the first stage of the series, included two quads, but if in Moscow it was a lutz and a sheepskin coat, in Samara the skater performed lutz twice (the first of which was in a cascade).

In the short, Alexander declared the highest basic difficulty for men (46.30), but failed to cope with the quadruple sheepskin coat and missed the triple axel.

But the skater’s desire to take his own in the most masculine way - with complexity and power, certainly deserves respect.

1. (1) Shoma Uno (Japan)

2. (9)

(Russia)

3. (3) Ilya Malinin (USA)

4. (4) Kao Miura (Japan)

5. (5) Petr Gumennik (Russia)

6. (6) Dmitry Aliev (Russia)

7. (-)

(Japan)

8. (2) Mark Kondratyuk (Russia)

9. (7) Evgeny Semenenko (Russia)

10. (-)

(Russia)