The Russian Jumping Championship is a new tournament not only for figure skating fans, but also, it seems, for managers who have been entrusted with its organization.
Although something similar had been done for several years on a commercial basis, the first day of the competition in St. Petersburg caused a feeling of "dampness" in many things.
So, it was originally planned that the members of the national team immediately get into the final on Sunday, while other athletes get into it through the qualifying stage.
However, on Saturday morning the situation suddenly changed: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Sofia Samodelkina and Mikhail Kolyada disappeared from the list of participants in the individual tournament.
And if the absence of the three-time national champion did not affect the competition schedule in any way (except that the number of skaters who could go further increased from two to three), then the refusal of two girls mixed the cards, and the organizers had to cancel the qualification, since they had only ten skaters.
Moreover, the federation did not want to admit this, having come up with a very streamlined commentary.
“There was no need to hold a qualifying women's tournament, as a sufficient number of participants declared themselves for the competition,” the FFKKR said.
The situation looked a little strange also because, according to coach Alexei Mishin, Tuktamyshev and Kolyada were not going to participate in the individual tournament at all.
And either he was cunning in this way, or some kind of failure occurred when compiling the lists.
At the same time, there are no problems with the health of athletes.
In particular, as Tatyana Mishina said, Tuktamysheva wants to finally perform a quadruple sheepskin coat.
“I hope we will see.
Everyone is waiting.
It so happened that our group had just arrived from Perm, after the flight we rested for a day or two.
Someone else got sick with a small cold.
Liza got sick at first, but yesterday she was already skating.
It's okay, everyone will!
Just such a flight, a change of weather, it turned out tight in time.
Now in training we focused more on jumping, but still, in every lesson, we also go through simple things with music: tracks, rotations, ”RIA Novosti quotes Mishina.
Fortunately, the qualifying tournament among men still took place.
Eight athletes were divided into four pairs.
Each skater performed two jumps, and the one who received the most points went through to the next round.
Vladislav Dikidzhi and Grigory Fedorov reached the final.
Moreover, the latter made four quadruple lutz in a row.
So on Sunday, a pupil of Elena Sokolovskaya can surprise his opponents.
And the fight for the third ticket was won by Andrey Anisimov, who jumped over Ivan Popov.
The draw for the Sunday part of the competition was also a bit chaotic.
The hosts were Konstantin Anisimov, Alina Zagitova and Maxim Trankov.
The highlight of the event was gifts from the skaters to the audience in the hall.
They were played in the lottery.
At times it looked very touching.
For example, Sofya Akatyeva brought a crystal heart because she trains at the Khrustalny skating rink, and Sofya Muravyova gave away a hairpin she wore for her first program and handmade bracelets.
Wards of Alexei Mishin decided to be original and gave fans a book by the "professor" about improving the technique of jumping, and Kamila Valieva promised to ride with one of the lottery winners at the skating rink on Red Square in Moscow.
However, there were too many presents, and the process of presenting souvenirs dragged on, so the skaters who were seated on the stage were frankly bored.
According to columnist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, the reason for the problems in organizing the championship lies in the fact that the FFKKR still does not have a professional team that can hold such events.
“You just need to understand that organizing a show is a serious profession.
In a situation where it saves a sport, there should just be a separate management team that knows how it should be done.
Why there is still no such team is not a mystery to me, but a reason for some frustration, let's say so.
As a result, instead of a top-level show with performers who deserve a first-class presentation, we have a small-town skit with an indistinct, tongue-tied entertainer, ”the RT columnist wrote in her Telegram channel.
For some reason, the final line-ups of the teams were also determined on Saturday.
Initially, in each of the teams - Eteri Tutberidze, Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Mishin - there were four single skaters, and two more were added by drawing lots.
And without division into men and women.
As a result, Dmitry Aliev and Andrey Mozalev joined the students of Khrustalny.
Together with Tuktamysheva and Kolyada, Sofya Samodelkina and Alexander Samarin will fight for victory, while Makar Ignatov and Pyotr Gumennik strengthened Plushenko's Angels.
Also in the team of the two-time Olympic champion Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov will perform.
Another pair of Tamara Moskvina - Alexander Boikov and Dmitry Kozlovsky - will fight for the victory of the Mishin team.
Since the girls had ten participants in the individual tournament, which means an odd number of pairs, the organizers still had to make a semblance of qualification for four girls: Alina Gorbacheva will meet Lyubov Rubtsova, and Anastasia Zinina will face Maria Gordeeva.
In the second round, Sofia Muravyova and Alisa Dvoeglazova will be waiting for them.
Much more interesting, it seems, will be the fight in the second part of the bracket, where Kamila Valieva will first have to fight with Sofia Titova, and then with Sofia Akatieva or Veronika Zhilina.
12 people will perform for men on Sunday, so the grid was broken non-standardly and three participants will be in the final at once.
In the first round, it will be interesting to watch the duel between Gleb Lutfullin and Andrey Mozalev, as well as Petr Gumennik and Makar Ignatov.
It remains to be hoped that the organizers will take into account the identified shortcomings, and during the final, the audience will see a real show, which they are waiting for.