The pre-Olympic figure skating season has begun! The Russian youth team skating trials started in Novogorsk, and our best young people put in nine outstanding performances.
Initially, there were 10 names on the list, but shortly before the start of the skating competitions it became known that Mark Lukin would not be performing at them – the fault was due to problems with the skates. Legendary coach Tatyana Tarasova and Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova were present to watch the performances.
In the junior short program, the participants’ elements are strictly regulated: for example, quads cannot be performed. The jumps include a double or triple axel, a cascade of two jumps and a mandatory solo jump. This year it is a triple flip. But we still see quads today. And in music, it seems, the main trend is rock in all its possible forms.
What surprised our young single skaters before the start of the season? “Championship” he says.
Follow the performances online!
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A representative of Tamara Moskvina’s school, Nikolai Ugozhaev, will participate in the senior category this season, but he also made his mark in the junior category in Novogorsk. For the new short program they chose the song In the End by Linkin Park. Not everything went well at the box office, but Kolya also competed in the most difficult quadruple jumps!
The quadruple flip cascade was a success, but Ugozhaev fell from the quadruple lutz. There was a step forward on the triple axel, but the mistakes in the program itself did not spoil the impression. Cheerful musical accompaniment, rocker costumes and incredible technical risk – it will be very interesting to watch Nikolai’s debut as an adult.
Mikhail Aleksakhin of Plushenko’s Angels had the cleanest performance in the first warm-up. This skater is only 13 years old, but he very confidently performed the standard short series: a triple Axel, a triple flip, a triple lutz cascade and a toe loop. Mikhail’s music is iconic to his coach Evgeni Plushenko, Aranjuez performed by Edwin Marton.
Ivan Ramzenkov, a student of Kirill Davydenko, has grown up and changed his hairstyle in the off-season. In the short program, the skater skated to compositions of Tension and Convergent, mastered all the content except the cascade, unfortunately followed by a fall with a triple Lutz. If last season Ivan had a short rock style, now he has a calmer one, towards the neoclassical style.
Makar Puzin from Irina Smirnova’s group embodied on ice the image of Sergei Yesenin’s poem “The Black Man” for the second season. Channel One commentator Alexander Grishin mistakenly assumed that Makar was inspired by Andrei Mozalev’s performance at the “Russian Challenge”, but this is not so – Puzin’s program was presented to the public much earlier. Not everything went smoothly with the skate itself: a butterfly on the axle, but then a high-quality triple flip and a cascade with a triple lutz.
This season Lev Lazarev focused on the marine theme; his program focused on Kwoon, the king of the sea. The CSKA figure skater showed the purest execution of jumps (triple Axel, triple flip, cascade Lutz-toe loop), and the performance itself pleased with unusual approaches: for example, Lev performs the same flip, just getting off the hydroblade.
Vadim Voronov changed his coaching staff in the off-season, switching from Igor Lyutikov to Victoria Butsaeva. In Novogorsk he presented a program based on “The Godfather”. There are no doubts about the jumps, everything was done at the level, but Vadim stumbled a bit on the step track. But there will still be time to develop the program: the first competitions for juniors will not come soon.
Eduard Karartynyan from Svetlana Sokolovskaya’s group surprised the audience with an unusual costume and staging of Peter Cincotti’s Love Is Gone. He was the first of the youngsters to perform the Lutz-Rittberger cascade, and even came close to it from the Charlotte spiral, but Eduard’s second jump was unsuccessful.
Karartynyan’s partner Mikhail Tikhonov summed up the main trend of last season: Charles Aznavour’s La Boheme. First the original interpretation was performed, and then a remix of the composition. Tikhonov’s jumping content is easier than that of others – double axis instead of triple – but there is still the whole season ahead!
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Eteri Tutberidze’s student Arseny Fedotov closed the short program for the boys. The conductors were Eteri Georgievna herself and Daniil Gleikhengauz, and two Queen compositions were chosen for the program: Surf’s Up and Another One Bites The Dust.
Tomorrow, August 15, the young people will present free programs, the start of the performances is scheduled for 15:00 Moscow time. There will be no more restrictions on content, so a parade of the most difficult jumps awaits us.
