Fatal support
Sports pairs are the only participants in the Spartakiad figure skating tournament who had an extra day off between the short and free programs. However, despite the athletes’ opportunity to rest and recover properly, spectators at the Magnitogorsk Metallurg Arena saw only one clean performance out of seven on the second day of the competition.
The parade of mistakes began with Daria Boyarintseva and Roman Pleshkov, who shortly before the competition changed their coaching staff and moved to the growing group of Eteri Tutberidze's team. However, the change of situation did not bring a positive effect: the guys could not cope with the jumping elements and throws, as a result of which they remained in last place. Following them, Ekaterina Osokina and Artyom Gritsaenko took to the ice, but her partner, as in the short, did not go well with her jumps - she only did a single axel and a double toe loop instead of a triple.
Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov closed the first warm-up with a far from flawless performance. Both throws of the pair came out with marks, in addition, Ekaterina, the youngest of the participants in the pairs tournament, also smeared the jumping part. The 16-year-old figure skater completed the program, barely holding back tears, but her partner found words to cheer her up. After the performance, Yanchenkova admitted that this season had been difficult for their couple emotionally due to a series of injuries.
“It all came together like a lump, at the end of the season I already understand how tired I am,” the athlete noted.
Spectators had the right to expect clean performances from the athletes of the first warm-up, especially since all four duets were competing for medals: places from second to fourth after the short were separated by less than a point. But, probably, the proximity of the awards affected the psychological state of the athletes, because Natalya Khabibulina and Ilya Knyazhuk ruined their chances for the award with a blunder. During the approach to the final death, his partner’s skate slipped and he fell onto the ice, naturally dragging his partner with him. The duet lost an entire element and became only sixth in the free program, but a decent margin after the short program allowed them to maintain the final fourth place.
After such a mistake by their opponents, Yulia Artemyeva and Alexei Bryukhanov had to avoid serious mistakes to get bronze, but the fight for silver required impeccable skating. But due to the fall, the athletes were left without the third jump in the sequence, and then they also lost points on the throwout. However, Pavel Slyusarenko’s team finished the tournament with bronze - their first medal at a major adult competition. And their plans now are to fully compete with the two best couples in the country.
“(For this you need. - RT) improve components, skating, because superiority lies largely in skating. The level of skating is much higher, and we must strive for this,” Bryukhanov noted.
The quality of gliding and presentation of the two duets who completed their performances at the Spartakiad was truly excellent. Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky entered their skate as concentrated as possible and demonstrated that they know how to pull themselves together in difficult moments. They performed most of the program at excellent speed, this time making no mistakes either on jumps or on throws.
It seemed that they were confidently moving towards their best performance of the free program of the season, when absolutely unexpectedly and illogically there was a misfire on an element that had not been failed in recent years, perhaps even once. During the transition in the final lift, Boykova slipped from Kozlovsky’s hand, and he was forced to simply lower her to the ice. Because of this oversight, the athletes lost about four points.
“I didn’t have any loss of concentration, the rental went very well, in a competitive format, the most stupid, shameful mistake was made. It ruined the whole impression of the performance, which was really good,” Dmitry noted after the performance.
The last to take to the ice were intermediate leaders Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov. They, of course, saw that their main rivals had made an unfortunate mistake, and this, as the partner later admitted, added to the desire to make their program clean.
“I understood that there was no way we could be given away, especially the last support. I understood that there was no room for error, the whole program had to be done in such a way that there were no questions,” the skater said after the skate on Channel One.
And Tamara Moskvina’s wards coped with their task at the highest level, without making a single, even small, mistake. This is their fourth victory at tournaments this season - previously Anastasia and Alexander won both stages of the Russian Grand Prix and the December national championship. This series means a lot for the athletes who lost to Boykova and Kozlovsky in the CR last year.
“We heard many times that after the Olympics there was a decline, but we thought that this would not affect us, because we are young, strong, and everything will be fine. But indeed, there was a decline, not as strong as it could have been, but it was there. And now it seems to me that we have regained our strength and are ready to fight further,” said Mishina.
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© Alexander Wilf
Victorious "February"
After the women's short program, hardly anyone had any doubts about who would become the winner of the Spartakiad. Adelia Petrosyan was ahead of her closest pursuer, Anna Frolova, by almost ten points, and there was no way she could miss such an advantage. The more pressing question was who would win the silver award, since there were at least three contenders for it.
The first of them to take to the ice was Alina Gorbacheva, who began the program with a quadruple Salchow, but it turned out to be under-rotated in the quarter. And in general, the jumping elements of student Sofia Fedchenko looked a little heavy. The cascades were especially difficult for her in the second half of the program, when the athlete had already become noticeably weaker physically. As a result, I fell from a triple sheepskin coat. However, she was ahead of Daria Sadkova in the final protocol, who had a quadruple sheepskin coat (also underrotated).
“This, of course, is far from the maximum I can skate. It’s a shame about the cascade; after the lutz I lost concentration, and therefore, unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But I have already made conclusions for myself, I will try to make things even better,” Alina noted.
Next, Ksenia Sinitsyna presented her gorgeous program. Her performances are always a delight in terms of presentation, skating skills, and how perfectly all the movements fit into the music. There are no ultra-c elements in the arsenal of student Svetlana Panova, but she coped with triple jumps and cascades almost flawlessly - the only blemish was the “daw” on the loop. According to technical assessment, Sinitsyna lost to Gorbacheva, but higher scores for components allowed her to beat her opponent and remain in the fight for silver.
The decisive word in this fight belonged to Anna Frolova, who took second place after the short one. She, like Sinitsyna, does not master quadruple jumps, so she relies on the purity of performance and choreography. At the Russian Championship, Evgeniy Rukavitsyn’s ward did not perform very well, but the reason for this was a previous illness, and in Magnitogorsk she showed that she can skate truly beautifully and efficiently. The judges saw only a lack of rotation on Anna's triple lutz, but also did not ignore the inspiration with which the skater performed. It was due to the second score that the St. Petersburg figure skater beat Sinitsina by a tiny margin.
“I gave it my all today. Honestly, I’m tired, but I’m happy with the result. definitely all the work done with this coaching staff was worth it. The result is very worthy. I am happy to ride in such a team with such an attitude, with such an approach to work. I have both work and performance - everything is a pleasure. I hope it will always be like this,” Frolova shared after the skate, noting that she has not yet realized that she won a medal at the Spartakiad.
In turn, the bronze winner noted that she was 80% satisfied with herself and was pleased with the grades she received. In her opinion, the judges began to appreciate her work more highly, and she herself did a good job this season.
“I have become more mature, the free program has a different style, which I am very happy about. I always dreamed of skating such an incendiary program, the coaches heard me, and we made such a dance, emotionally vibrant program,” the figure skater noted.
Well, Petrosyan’s performance was the icing on the cake. The production “February” sounded special on the Magnitogorsk ice, taking into account the dates of the tournament. And even despite falling from a quadruple flip at the beginning of the program, Tutberidze’s student performed two quad toe loops and also brilliantly coped with all the other elements. But it was precisely this single mistake that spoiled the impression of the champion, who did not look too happy at the end of the rental.
“It would be great if I did a flip, which, unfortunately, I dropped again. This made me very upset. During the warm-up I was sure that I would succeed; I was even more worried about the sheepskin coats. Then throughout the program I thought that I didn’t do this jump, but that’s not possible. This affected the presentation, since I was in myself,” Adelia complained on Channel One.
Be that as it may, the gold deservedly went to Petrosyan, and for her this is already her fifth victory at official tournaments in a row - starting with the final of the Russian Grand Prix last year.