Although everyone’s favorites Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova do not participate in the test skates, fans should not be sad. There are many familiar names on the entry lists, and the newcomers are all talents who can outshine more experienced athletes. This applies to all types and testifies to the development of our figure skating.
On the Megasport ice on September 16 and 17, the senior debut of yesterday’s juniors Evgeni Plushenko and Eteri Tutberidze is actively expected. The men’s ranks will also be filled out by older juniors.
At the ball, Irina Khavronina will try to prove that she did not make a fatal mistake by leaving Dario Chirisano for David Narizhny. And in pairs, former single skater Alena Kostornaya promises to attract everyone’s attention. Together with her partner Georgy Kunitsa, she will demonstrate in a new way what she has learned in just a few months and how ready she is, in principle, to enter a competitive career after a long break. Stars Tutberidze and Plushenko have grown into adulthood.
Of the 12 girls registered in the adult skating event, five are participating for the first time. Fans, of course, already know their names. Alina Gorbacheva, Veronika Yametova and Anastasia Zinina last season showed excellent performance in senior competitions and earned the right to host new programs on Megasport. At the same time, Alina also managed to win the Russian Junior Championship, thus winning the first major title of her career. She successfully combines the quadruple Salchow performance with expressive and emotional skating, which captivates fans and attracts the sympathy of judges.
In the summer, the athlete actively studied the triple axis, but suffered a serious injury and took a long time to recover. He most likely won’t take any chances with Ultra-C this weekend, but his shows with lighter content promise to make a strong impression.
At the end of the summer, Gorbachev disappeared: what happened?
Anastasia Zinina will also take the ice after an injury suffered in front of the crowd during the Channel One Cup. A fall from a triple Lutz in the short program caused her to withdraw from the tournament and she missed the remainder of the season. Before the unpleasant incident, Nastya regularly put on a sheepskin quadruple coat, but it is unknown in what condition she has this item now.
The representative of Yekaterinburg, Veronika Yametova, had never shown ultra-c jumps in competitions before, but even without them she immediately captivated fans. Because of her fast speed of movement on the skating rink, the figure skater received the nickname Hurricane, and performing the cross split in the short program became her calling card. Whether we will see this division on Megasport on September 16 or 17 is a big mystery.
A lot of intrigue is associated with the debut at the adult level of the rising stars of the coaching staff of Tutberidze and Plushenko – Daria Sadkova and Veronika Zhilina. At the end of last season, Dasha suddenly mastered the quadruple shearling, and in April a video surfaced of her performing a triple axel in training. With this type of content, she is a real threat to older girls.
However, Veronica is much more dangerous. Plushenko’s student, in addition to the trixel and the quadruple toe loop, has a quadruple Salchow and a quadruple Lutz. He hasn’t skated with the latter yet, but everything is on track to include it in the new free program. Proof of this is his performance in the youth skating test in Novogorsk: there the first element he jumped was a triple Lutz and only later a quadruple Salchow.
Veronica Zilina
Photo: Artyom Sakharov, “Championship”
Will Vetlugin compensate for Kolyada’s absence?
The new kids had the shortest time on the test skates: three out of 12 participants. Matvey Vetlugin, who enchanted fans last season with his elegant skating and his funny original performance in the Russian Challenge Show tournament, partially compensates for the absence of Mikhail Kolyada, who suspended his career. Both represent Alexei Mishin’s group and stand out for their excellent choreographic skills and excellent sliding.
Some fans even consider Matvey to be Kolyada’s successor, although it is a mistake to draw complete parallels between them. In any case, Vetlugin takes the comparisons with his colleague in stride and they do not affect him in any way.
“How do I feel about such comparisons? It is neither pleasant nor offensive. I hear this a lot and often, I’m used to it. If someone wants to see some of Misha’s distinctive features in me, why not? I don’t see anything good or bad in this, it’s just the way it is,” Vetlugin shared in an interview with Championship.
Matvey Vetlugin at the show program tournament
Photo: Alexander Safonov, “Championship”
The public will love to see Ilya Yablokov on Megasport. Last season, an old injury prevented him from proving his worth. Because of him he missed the final of the Russian Grand Prix, but now he returns to the fight. His arsenal of jumps includes a rare quadruple loop: very few people risk this dangerous jump.
The third newcomer to the skating trials, Grigory Fedorov, is the long-awaited junior graduate and winner of the jumping tournament. The 18-year-old student of Svetlana Sokolovskaya regularly produces quadruple lutzes at tournaments, so he surely won’t get lost among his groupmates Mark Kondratyuk and Alexander Samarin.
Vetlugin interview with “Championship”:
Exclusive
He loves Tuktamysheva, parodies Guberniev, works as a judge. Interview with Matvey Vetlugin
Kostornaya restarts her doubles career
In sports couples, the main newcomers to the skating events are, without a doubt, Alena Kostornaya / Georgy Kunitsa. Even though Alena has participated in this event many times, she has never appeared as a boy before. Unfortunately, his brilliant singles career was interrupted by injuries and hip surgery, but she did not want to part with the big sport. Now the feisty skater opens a new chapter both on and off the ice. In mid-August, she and Gosha got married, making their sports union attract even more attention. They’ve only been training together for a few months, but they’re doing everything they can to catch up with the leading pairs.
It will be very interesting how Taisiya Sobinina/Denis Khodykin skate this weekend. Denis is also not a newcomer to preseason “shows,” but everyone is used to his duet with Daria Pavlyuchenko. The collaboration with Tasya began recently and it is not yet clear whether it will be successful.
Daria Boyarintseva/Roman Pleshkov, Natalya Khabibullina/Ilya Knyazhuk and Elizaveta Osokina/Artem Gritsaenko managed to move to test skates thanks to good results in competitions. The three couples are very young, but very promising and are not afraid to compete with the elite of our team. Lisa and Artyom also come from juniors. Last season they successfully combined adult and youth competitions, skating in a total of ten tournaments! Very hard-working and determined guys. No one will be allowed to relax.
Kostornaya restarts her doubles career in sports pairs with the main debutants in the tests:
Kostornaya and Kunitsa debuted together in the tournament! But it was not shown on the broadcast.
Circulation of couples in Russian dances.
In ice dance, three newly formed dance duos will perform for the audience: Annabelle Morozov/Igor Eremenko, Irina Khavronina/David Narizhny, Sofia Shevchenko/Andrey Yezhlov. At the same time, the level of connection between them is reminiscent of Brazilian television series. So, Morozov used to skate with Narizhny and Eremenko used to skate with Shevchenko. The names all look familiar, but they are mixed up like playing cards.
A year ago, Khavronina performed at the skating events with Dario Chirisano, and the breakup with her partner remains an unhealed wound on our figure. Dario never found a suitable partner in Russia and is not allowed to compete on the national team with Czech figure skater Denisa Tsimlova.
All this is very sad, but maybe in “Megasport” Ira will prove that it was not in vain to Narizhny.
The real new faces in the test performances are the dance duos of Sofia Leontyeva/Daniil Gorelkin and Alexandra Prokopets/Alexander Vaskovich. Sofia and Daniil are runners-up in the Russian championship and winners of the youth Federation Cup final. On September 16 and 17 they will finally make their senior debut.
And the union of two namesakes, Alexandra and Alexander, should have been remembered by fans at the Russian Grand Prix final in the spring. There they stopped one step away from the podium: for a couple skating together for a season, this is an excellent indicator.
All about couples and dancing on test skates:
Crazy Dance, Boykova/Kozlovsky from Tutberidze and Kostornaya’s debut. Guide to paired species.
