Scanty gaps in dances

The first competitive day of the finals of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating in St. Petersburg opened with a rhythm dance.

This view was pretty shaken throughout the season - either from controversial judicial decisions, when a duet with falls was awarded high points, or from the breakup of seemingly stable couples.

As you know, after the championship of Russia, Annabel Morozov and David Narizhny, as well as Irina Khavronina and Dario Chirizano, stopped performing together.

Shortly before the final, it became known that the national champions Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Yegor Bazin would not take part in the competition.

In addition, at the last moment, for medical reasons, the bronze medalists of the Czech Republic Elizaveta Pasechnik and Maxim Nekrasov withdrew from the tournament.

In their absence, the struggle for gold unfolded between the three duets, and it is almost impossible to predict in whose favor it will end.

The top three showed very close results on the first day of the competition, which were within 0.81 points.

The intermediate first place was taken by the only winners of the Chechen Republic Elizaveta Shanaeva and Pavel Drozd who remained in the ranks, the judges put Vasilisa Kaganovskaya and Valery Angelopol in the second place, Sofya Tyutyunina and Andrey Bagin in the third.

It should be noted that Anzhelika Krylova's wards overtook their rivals in terms of technique, but lost to them in terms of components.

This may be due to the fact that the couple has not participated in official competitions for a long time.

The skaters admitted that they were seriously preparing for the tournament, as they considered it the last opportunity to seriously declare themselves this season.

“We are glad that we finally got to the competition, and not just perform out of competition.

It was emotional, it was clean and pretty good.

I think this is our best rental of the season.

It was difficult to compete not because of a long break, but because they let the Russian championship go.

This is our last chance to get somewhere, let's put it this way," TASS quoted Angelopol as saying.

In turn, Alexander Zhulin, who works with two other duets in the top three, was pleased with his wards, who showed clean skates without disruption.

“Both couples performed with good emotions.

Of course, it’s unnerving that the gaps are small, but let’s see how the free dance develops, it will decide everything, ”the specialist reasonably noted.

Five hundredths of a point for Boikova and Kozlovsky

No less dense results were in pair skating, where the first two places were separated by an insignificant 0.05 points.

Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, who once again confirmed their psychological stability, became the best in the short box office.

Pupils of Tamara Moskvina had to go on the ice after all the main competitors, but this practically did not affect the performance of the program.

The pair showed a beautiful parallel triple loop, as well as a high throw triple flip.

The only element that the judges had questions about was the twist, which was rated only at the third level.

Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who took second place, were not without blots.

The partner did not spin the triple toe loop a little, in addition, the athletes parted ways on a parallel rotation, having received not as high a bonus for it as they could.

It is interesting that Evgenia went out on the ice in a new suit, but, as it turned out, she was forced to.

As the coach of the couple Maxim Trankov explained on the air, the skater simply mixed up the dresses, going to the Northern capital.

The third intermediate place went to Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, who made a serious mistake at the box office.

Athletes continue to experiment with the inclusion of a parallel triple lutz in the content, but so far this has been successful with varying degrees of success.

If at the championship of St. Petersburg the lutz was done cleanly, then this time the couple failed - the partner fell.

After the skating, the athletes noted that the lutz for greenhouses is similar to ultra-si elements, since it is technically complex and only a few decide to include it in the program.

“If you remember, the last time at the highest level in 2018 it was performed by Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford.

This is a difficult jump, it primarily requires technique, not strength.

In training today and yesterday, it turned out more or less normally.

But these are completely different things, different sensations.

It's okay, it's a sport.

Today we didn’t succeed – let’s forget today like a dream and master it by the next season, ”Gallyamov promised.

Problems with Akatieva's trixel and Petrosyan's leadership

Women's single skating in Russia this season has become quite unpredictable.

If in the Olympic season Kamila Valieva was inaccessible to her rivals, now the matured figure skater has lost a little stability in jumping elements.

So in the final of the Grand Prix, the pupil of Eteri Tutberidze fell from the triple axel.

However, Camila herself was not at all upset, especially since the rest of the content was performed perfectly.

The figure skater stressed that she was not going to give up the triplex, despite problems with its execution, even in training.

“I had a goal to try this jump - at the last competition I made a butterfly on it.

Here, according to my feelings, I didn’t twist it, but I see no reason to refuse it.

This is not the Olympic Games, although I didn’t go for all the content there either.

On the contrary, this is a very good training, ”said the athlete after the rental, who took the third intermediate line after the short one.

The trixel did not submit to another ward of Tutberidze - Sofya Akatieva, from whom this was least expected.

Throughout the season, the 15-year-old figure skater almost did not make mistakes on this element, but the performance in St. Petersburg did not work out for the national champion.

Aside from the fall, she only got level three on the final spin and ended up only in fifth position.

The reputation of "Crystal" had to be saved by Adelia Petrosyan, and she brilliantly coped with this task.

Moreover, the athlete initially should not have reached the final, as she skated only at one stage of the series, and missed the second due to injury.

But the refusal to participate in the tournament of a number of rivals made its own adjustments.

Pupil Tutberidze, whose content was inferior in complexity only to Valieva, skated the program without a single blot.

Triple axel and lutz, as well as a combination of triple flip - triple toe loop received good pluses from the judges, as well as spins and steps.

As a result, Petrosyan showed the best result of the season in Russia, and in the world too - 85.62 points.

“I am very glad that I saw such a high rating for myself.

I see whether I am growing or, conversely, not working.

I prepared quite a lot for the Grand Prix finals and, in principle, I came here quite confident.

Ride very easy, finally got pleasure.

The audience is very good, it supports, as usual, you are charged from it, ”Adelia commented on her performance.

The most experienced Elizaveta Tuktamysheva lost 4.5 points to her young rival, who demonstrated, perhaps, one of the best performances of the short program of the season.

She performed a near-perfect triple Axel as well as a flip in the second half of the program.

And if not for an unfortunate mistake at the cascade, where the Empress doubled her sheepskin coat, the difference between her and Petrosyan could have been minimal.

“I managed to enjoy it, the audience is amazing - it's such a pleasure from the rental.

I thought it would be harder - and responsibility, and it was hot on the ice, but the energy is such that it's a real buzz.

Axel was really good, even I liked it, although I usually find fault with him, ”Elizaveta said at the end of the performance.

Return of Kondratyuk

The brightest performance of the evening was given, perhaps, by single skaters.

For a long time there have not been so many clean and bright skates in men's skating at Russian tournaments.

Ten out of 12 participants did not fall, and each of them had more than one ultra-c element.

Well, the main event was the return to the ice of Beijing Olympic champion in team competition Mark Kondratyuk.

He withdrew from the December national championship due to a back injury that worsened after the short program.

After that, fans could only see the ex-European champion in ice shows, where, of course, there was no such jumping content as in competitions.

The return of Mark was a success, although it was noticeable that the skater was worried.

Compared to the autumn stages of the Grand Prix, the ward of Svetlana Sokolovskaya slightly facilitated the short one - instead of a quadruple lutz, he inserted a quad-toe loop, but the program played in this form in his performance.

Kondratyuk coped with both the triple axel and the cascade of sheepskin coats “4 + 3” in the second part of the program.

As a result, he became the only one of the participants who broke the grandmaster mark of 100 points.

“I thought that after the European Championship, the Olympics would no longer be so scary and exciting.

But now I know: if you don’t perform for a long time, fear and excitement return, ”said the athlete after the rental.

No less spectacular was the exit of the vice-champion of the country, Peter Gumennik, in whom the judges saw only one serious mistake - underrotation on the quadruple loop.

All other elements, including the trixel and the cascade of the quadruple salchow - the triple sheepskin coat, he performed with good pluses, but still lost to Kondratyuk 3.17 points.

“I am satisfied, a little worse in the jump part, but according to the second assessment, I skated as far as I could.

I've been sick quite a lot this season, I've gotten quite seriously ill.

I recovered after four days, but after that it was very difficult to skate, then I got sick again ... In general, I have some problems with immunity, ”the skater shared.

Just 0.5 points lost to Gumennik Makar Ignatov, who, like Petrosyan, got into the final only due to the refusals of other athletes.

But, according to him, he was preparing for the tournament long before the announcement of inclusion in the list of participants, as he was the first substitute.

Like Gumennik, Makar showed a tall quadruple loop loop - and also with underrotation.

But the skater lost much more points on non-jumping elements: his spinning top with a change of legs pulled him only to the third level, and the step path even to the second.

"I've done everything.

If you dig deeper, you can look at the rotation, whether everything worked out with it.

A little short of 100 points?

Okay, no big deal.

These are just numbers, ”said the athlete after the performance.