The draw for the Channel One Figure Skating Cup took place in St. Petersburg, which will be held this coming weekend.
This year the tournament, which has become traditional, will be held according to updated rules.
Not two teams, as before, but three will compete for victory.
Their captains were Anna Shcherbakova (blue team), Alina Zagitova (white) and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (red).
Each squad included four singles and singles athletes, as well as two sports and dance pairs.
The captains selected the participants one by one in the order they were drawn by lot.
Shcherbakova was the first to choose sports and dance couples, Tuktamysheva - men, and Zagitova - women.
On paper, the team of the Beijing Olympic champion looks like the favorite, since it included the current national champions in three events: Adelia Petrosyan, Anastasia Mishina - Alexander Gallyamov and Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin.
In addition, the winner of the silver award of the Czech Republic 2024, Vladislav Dikidzhi, and the vice-champion of the Spartakiad, Anna Frolova, were in the blue camp.
The rest of the cast looks no less powerful: Pyotr Gumennik, Dmitry Aliev, Daniil Samsonov, Veronika Yametova, Daria Sadkova, as well as the couples Sofia Shevchenko - Andrey Yezhlov and Elizaveta Osokina - Artyom Gritsaenko.
“I have a great team.
I hope that they are less worried than I am, because I was very worried now,” Shcherbakova admitted after the end of the draw.
The 2015 world champion relied on youth in her choice and invited the two best juniors to the team - Lev Lazarev and Arseny Fedotov, as well as Alisa Dvoeglazova and Lidia Pleskacheva.
In addition, her team included silver medalists from the past Czech Republic in three events: Sofya Muravyova, Alexandra Boykova - Dmitry Kozlovsky and Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva - Yegor Bazin.
The St. Petersburg athlete could not help but choose Matvey Vetlugin, who trains with her in the same group with Alexei Mishin, and the only duet of dancers from the Northern capital - Ekaterina Mironova and Evgeniy Ustenko, who won by a huge margin in the audience vote when forming the composition of the tournament participants.
The juniors and Muravyova were accompanied by Maria Agaeva, and the men's entry was completed by the most experienced singles skater, Alexander Samarin, for whom this tournament will be the last in his career.
The second sports pair of the Reds was Yulia Artemyeva - Alexey Bryukhanov.
“I’m determined to win,” Tuktamysheva said with a smile.
Zagitova got Margarita Bazylyuk into her team, who amazed the whole world with a unique cascade of two quads during the national jumping championship.
The Olympic champion Pyeongchang also chose Alina Gorbacheva, Ksenia Gushchina and Ksenia Sinitsina.
The men's quartet also turned out to be powerful: Evgeny Semenenko, who won both main starts of the season, Mark Kondratyuk, “resurrected” at the Spartakiad, Roman Savosin and Ivan Ramzenkov.
But in sports pairs and dances, Zagitova’s team did not have clear favorites.
White will be represented at the tournament by Ekaterina Chikmareva - Matvey Yanchenkov and Natalya Khabibullina - Ilya Knyazhuk, as well as Irina Khavronina - David Narizhny and Sofia Leontyeva - Daniil Gorelkin.
It is obvious that Zagitova will need to rely on singles players.
The ex-European champion, who was not the first time competing on the PDA, gave advice to his teammates on how to bring the most points to the bank.
“Try not to worry and do your best work.
If you’re lucky, you’ll be lucky,” Kondratyuk said.
The competition will open on Saturday with short programs and rhythm dance.
Which of the skaters will take to the ice will be determined by the captains, but each participant can only perform on one day - the only exception will be cases of injury that will require replacement.
Then the same skater or duet will be able to skate both programs.
At the same time, all athletes must certainly be involved in competitions; no one can simply sit on the bench.
However, the Channel One Cup itself will not be limited to rentals.
It will also include battles of elements, a challenge for fans and a separate competition for captains.
Points for performances will be awarded according to the Olympic team tournament system: that is, ten for first place, nine for second, eight for third, and so on.
If athletes suddenly score an equal number of points for a rental, then they will be awarded the same number of points.
And if the final points are equal after all competitions, the team that scored more on the second day of the competition or whose captain made a more significant contribution to the total will be higher.