With two falls and tears in their eyes: how Khudaiberdieva and Bazin became the new champions of Russia in ice dancing

Dancers competed for the first medals of the Russian Figure Skating Championship in Krasnoyarsk.

Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Yegor Bazin were the nominal favorites of the tournament even before it began, but the young duets were not going to give up without a fight.

Elizaveta Shanaeva and Pavel Drozd, as well as Elizaveta Pasechnik and Maxim Nekrasov scored under 80 points in rhythm dance, which, coupled with another fall of Khudaiberdiyeva, kept the intrigue on the second day of the competition.

However, after the free program, the top of the standings did not change.

Sofya Tyutyunina and Andrey Bagin, who potentially had good chances to get into the top three, did not look as perfect as they would like.

Pupils of Alexander Zhulin received the second levels for a number of elements, which did not allow them to join the fight for medals.

Irina Khavronina and Dario Chirizano, who were in fifth place, withdrew from the competition due to poor health of their partner.

According to their coach Alexei Gorshkov, the skater fell ill on the eve of the tournament, and the rhythm dance was harder for her than expected.

As a result, the third place was kept by Pasechnik and Nekrasov, who paired up only eight months ago.

As Ilya Averbukh noted, the athletes demonstrated first-class gliding, as well as high speed in the performance of twizzles, but they did not do without flaws and the second levels from the judges.

At the same time, the young skaters were completely satisfied with the result of their performance in Krasnoyarsk and admitted that they only dreamed of awards, but did not expect to receive them at the very first joint national championship.

“Honestly, we were not chasing medals.

They just wanted to show themselves.

It turns out that with each start it is possible to progress, ”Nekrasov said after the performance.

Spectators did not wait for clean skates from the leaders of the competition that day.

Shanaeva also made a mistake on the twizzles, although in general their performance with Drozd under "Scheherazade" left a very pleasant impression due to the high-quality execution of the elements, interesting lifts and non-banal entries.

“Today, let's be honest, in the technical part we made small mistakes that did not allow us to take first place.

In the free dance there was not the cleanest performance.

Let's rest a bit, with new forces we will continue to work.

At the end of the season, we have at least two more starts, we will add, ”the figure skater emphasized after the performance.

The excellent program of Khudaiberdiyeva and Bazin to the song Sweet Dreams turned out to be blurry: Elizabeth fell during the performance of the second series of twizzles.

This is not the first fall of the figure skater this season.

The day before, she also made a mistake in rhythm dance, similar problems arose in both programs at the Grand Prix stage in Sochi.

At the end of the rental, the girl simply didn’t have a face, and in the kiss-and-edge zone she finally gave vent to her emotions, bursting into tears on the coach’s shoulder.

“Mixed emotions were before grading.

Frustration due to mistakes during the rental and joy from the result.

Everything is mixed up.

Lisa was sick before the championship, and this resulted in her emotions after the performance, ”Bazin shared with reporters.

However, the judges were more than supportive of the wards of Denis Samokhin.

Despite the gross mistake, the skaters received almost 120 points for the rental and became the new champions of Russia.

“The tournament was very, very difficult for us.

The preparations were nervous, as were the competitions themselves.

We gave ourselves completely at the stage of preparation, at the competitions.

At the moment, we are not satisfied with ourselves, but with the fact that we have become champions of Russia.

It cannot be said that this is a championship with sediment.

The sediment was left from skating, but there is joy for the final result, ”added Yegor.

Nevertheless, many people remained puzzled about the refereeing decisions: both fans and specialists.

So, the coach of silver medalists Alexander Zhulin admitted that the victory of opponents with falls in both programs raised questions.

“Somehow we are starting to get used to it.

There is some strangeness in this, but the judges know better, ”Match TV quotes Zhulin.

Shanaeva, in turn, recalled that in the old days, a fall, and even more so two, did not allow dancers to win gold awards.

“Before, if a pair fell, it flew off.

But it is necessary to watch the replay, as it was.

Today they won, I don’t want to say anything else, ”said the skater.

But the honored coach of Russia Tatyana Tarasova had no questions about refereeing.

In her opinion, the distribution of places corresponded to the level of skating demonstrated at the championship.

“Khudayberdiyeva and Bazin had a huge supply after the first day.

They generally skated well, she just fell.

And they have now won six points.

They are purely the first, ”RIA Novosti quotes a specialist.