THE YOUTH ARRIVES
There was a real fight at the balls. Yes, now this species is going through difficult times. The top favorites have taken a breather this year, and no one has reached their level yet. But there are flashes here. And, first of all, this is the winning couple of the Grand Prix Final, Vasilisa Kaganovskaya and Valery Angelopol. The boys are showing good results. We did not see them at the Russian Championship – the couple withdrew for medical reasons, and after the First Channel Cup, according to the guys, they fell ill again. But Vasilisa and Valery knew how to get together and give their best. After a short, they lost the lead to Elizaveta Shanaeva and Pavel Drozd, but in the free skate they managed to get around them. The difference was only a little more than one point. In the kiss and cry zone, Elizabeth even burst into tears, she was almost certain of victory.
“March 9 will be exactly one year for our couple,” Shanaeva said, “I feel like they skated well. We’ll check, but probably something was revealed. I am satisfied with the performances, I was upset for the first 15 seconds, the tears went away by themselves.
Valery Angelopol, who won gold together with Vasilisa Kaganovskaya, did not call the skating ideal, but noted that they had done everything possible at the moment. And that was enough: “We showed the maximum this season,” says the skater, “we put everything together: both the team and the components. Of course, there are shortcomings, there is room for improvement. We did our best. Satisfied with the result. This ability is being able to pick yourself up at the right time.
The bronze of the Grand Prix final was won by Sofya Tyutyunina and Andrey Bagin.
BATTLE OF TRIXELS AND QUADS
For the girls, the fight with triples and quadruples, as always, was heated to the limit. In the short program, only Adelia Petrosyan and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva succumbed to pure triple axes. They became day one leaders. Camila Valieva closed the first three.
The free show left the trio unchanged, but it changed places.
Kamila Valieva neatly crafted two quadruple shearling coats, one cascading. She fell off a triple lutz in the middle of a rental. Maybe it was the environment. Spectators at the Yubileiny watched the penetrating skid so that only a slight slip was heard. Camila herself later admits that the second part of the rental was difficult for her. However, the excellent performance of the remaining items and her art allowed Valieva to score 241.76 points. And this is her second result, silver.
“To a greater extent, I am satisfied with myself,” Valieva shares her impressions of the season, “I have grown, a lot has happened this year. What happened there at the Olympics strengthened me a lot. I suddenly became an adult. But thanks to the support of my coaches and the people I meet along the way, I’m still resilient. This season I went into decline, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to continue, it’s impossible to go up constantly, but it encourages me to keep working. I think that the next seasons will be easier for me, I will work for it.
I would like to say… It will be strange… Thank you for those moments. It really strengthened me, now I am calmer in many things and I have more confidence in myself”.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva did not succeed in the short: she delicately performed the crown trixel, flip, but the cascade was only 3-2. The “Soledad” program on the second competitive day, the “Empress”, skated mentally and almost perfectly, only a slight decrease for an uncertain exit from the second axis. As a result, the favorite of the St. Petersburg public in the sum of two rents was able to overtake the new champion of Russia Sofya Akatieva, leaving her in fourth place.
Sofya gave a good free program, but she got by with almost all the ultra-si. Instead of a triple lutz in the middle of the program, she performed a quadruple finger loop. But the exit to step-out.
“It’s interesting to try something new, I wanted to complicate myself, go further,” says Akatieva, “it didn’t work out well.
But we will work harder and constantly skip the shearling coats in the second half.
It’s hard, but I’ll work. Glad I got two triple axes, still work to do on the shearling coat. I got stuck at first, it didn’t work very well.”
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva with bronze. “I am satisfied with my performance,” the skater shares her emotions, “and with the season, and with the way I passed the Grand Prix series, the Russian Championship, the final. I’m glad I was able to end this season on my own Anniversary with such great support. Only positive emotions from this start and season.
Support motivates and inspires any athlete. Both negative and positive comments affect. Those beautiful words we read help. These moments help to move on and not give up.
When you know that a lot of people support you, you start to take your job more seriously. You yourself begin to believe in yourself, reading that so many people believe in you. Don’t underestimate the love we get from the fans.
Do you recognize me on the street? In St. Petersburg they recognize me quite often. Restaurants and other places. They started learning more often in the last two or three years.”
Adelia Petrosyan became the winner of the Russian Grand Prix final in women’s singles. She skated her short program “Voila” with the very cool triplex, with a French humor. In the freeware, it wasn’t all clean, but it was so powerful: a quad twist, cascading four-pointed loops, and a (dirty) solo. The triple axel in the free program did not show up. 169.39 – on the second day, Petrosyan is also the first. Adelia currently has the most expensive vault set in women’s singles and uses it wisely. Although, we did not see a rittberger quad.
“I’m happy with the result, a bit upset about the axis, but I’ll work on it. I thought about the freeware, it’s over, but I’m still there in my thoughts. For now, I want to have a good weekend.
Thanks to Kamila Valieva for promoting our sport for the better, as well as Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. 15 Russian championships, as many as me. I’m glad to be able to compete, to talk to athletes that I admire and can guide me, to continue to be better.
Did you expect a call to the Final? I did not stop the preparation, a message could arrive at any moment. I stayed in shape, implemented the program. Everything went as usual, I received an invitation and continued to prepare for the final with renewed vigor.
LESS POINT
In pairs, the fight, as expected, took place between the three leading pairs.
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov became bronze medalists. Both programs ran with errors. But I was pleased that the mushrooms had a desire to continue their careers.
“There is a certain desire for the next season, and then we will see if it turns into plans,” Morozov said, “First, you need to skate the tournament of the show program, and then think about the future. I want to continue eating.
The real heat was between the pairs of Tamara Moskvina – Boykova-Kozlovsky and Mishina-Gallyamov. The Bears decided to take a chance and jumped into a short triple lutz instead of the usual salchow. As a result, the partner fell. In the free program, everything was done without problems. But in the sum of two rentals, they lost only 0.73 points.
“We are satisfied with the competition,” Gallyamov said, “Yes, we took a chance in the short program by inserting a more difficult jump. We understood that this might not be successful. There was emotion, I wanted to try to complicate myself more, not stay still. We wanted to start jumping it already this season, so that next season we can address this jump even better as a service element.”
Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky perfectly skated the short round with a loop. There were rough edges to the freeware, but Anna Karenina sounded awesome. Gold from the Grand Prix Final.
“We are very happy with the end of the competitive season,” says Dmitry Kozlovsky, “This is not just a victory and a gold medal, it is a victory of willpower over probability. If I were an outsider and a week ago they told me that we would win in Saint Petersburg, I would doubt it.
We approached the tournament in a completely disarmed state, without physical form, without quality stables. But we did not lose hope or courage. We do not collect physical form, but willpower. This is the only reason we won today. It’s hard to win when you realize you’re not physically ready for it.”
MEN’S BUSINESS
In men, the well-deserved gold was won by Pyotr Gumennik, who consistently skated both programs with quads, including a quad-rittberger: “It was quite difficult to skate, but I really wanted to win. I fought for all the elements, gave all my strength on the ice, and therefore got the desired result. This season there are more fans of men’s singles skating. I don’t remember anyone personally writing something bad to me.
At the end of last season, I was not very successful, but this time there was a breakthrough. But this is not an accident, I was counting on it, I worked.
Dmitry Aliev climbed to the second final place from 11th after the short program, like a phoenix, showing the cleanest performance on the second competitive day: “At the Russian Championships, it seems that I got into the national team, it keeps me going . There were thoughts that year to take a break. But he did not take a break, the season turned out to be positive. I don’t want to run there, it’s too far. It’s barely March.”
Third was Mark Kondratyuk, who was in the lead after the first day of competition. If with jazz in the short everything went to the maximum, in the free skate the skater made a lot of mistakes: “There were problems due to which it was not possible to perform adequately at various tournaments. I’m glad I managed to recover more or less, get out there and get on the podium. This is probably a good end to the season, given the problems and difficulties that have occurred. Hopefully next season will be better and not as problematic.”
The figure skating season can be considered over. There is only one new tournament left on the show schedule, but this is more of a show than a sport.
