The main and most sensational event of the second day of the Russian Figure Skating Championship was the performances of single skaters in the short program. 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, who received points higher than her own world record, was the leader according to its results by a colossal margin. But the other favorites were either not very successful or very unsuccessful: the world champion Anna Shcherbakova hardly became the second, Alexandra Trusova – the fifth, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva – the seventh.
The second competitive day of the Russian Figure Skating Championship, held in St. Petersburg, ended with a convincing victory for Kamila Valieva in the short program. Yesterday’s junior did not betray herself and again received space points for her performance, above her own world record, points – 90.38. Valieva seemed to have absorbed all the best that her predecessors, who were trained by coach Eteri Tutberidze, were gifted with – Yulia Lipnitskaya, Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, and then multiplied it all. In a flowing purple dress, she seemed to magically float above the ice. The skater performed the triple axel with such ease, as if we were talking about the simplest single jump. It is already obvious that with the same performance of the free program, she will be out of reach for anyone, even if all her rivals will do five quadruple jumps in the free program on Saturday.
Even the reigning world champion and three-time Russian champion Anna Shcherbakova was far behind Valieva. Despite the very expressive rental and decent content, including a rare cascade of triple lutz and triple rittberger, the athlete lagged behind Valieva by almost 10 points and almost missed ahead, in addition to her favorite, junior Sofya Muravyova. Muravyov dropped an unexpected penalty for delayed start below Shcherbakova.
Two more skaters, between whom the struggle for the third Olympic quota was to unfold, could not cope with the excitement and made a mistake. Both Alexandra Trusova (74.21 points) and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (71.28) fell from a triple axel. Tuktamysheva, in addition, made another mistake – she doubled the second jump in the cascade. And if the fifth going Alexandra Trusova can theoretically correct the situation by completing all her quadruple jumps on Saturday, then Elizaveta Tuktamysheva no longer has to claim to be in the top three.
18-year-old Mark Kondratyuk (284.37) became the champion of Russia according to the results of the men’s competition. The figure skater, making his senior debut this season, managed to confirm the third Olympic quota for the national team at the beginning of the season. But then there were no guarantees that he would get it. Now Kondratyuk has proved that he is the leader of the national team. For the composition from the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” he produced incredibly high-quality rental with very competitive content on the international arena – three quadruples and two triple axels. Even a mistake on the combination of triple lutz and salchow did not spoil the impression of the rental, which is very powerful in terms of energy.
The crumbs were lost to him by the much more experienced Mikhail Kolyada, who had already gone to the Olympics in Pyeongchang (283.70). There is no doubt that he is the most outstanding rider in the Russian national team today. Kolyada returned his exquisite production to the music from the film “White Crow” shortly before the championship. Inspired by the image of Rudolf Nureyev, Kolyada really performs this program in a very ballet manner. True, his technique sank again: only two “quads”, and all the cascades – with double jumps instead of triple jumps.
In ice dancing, the main sensation was the disappearance of domestic leaders Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov from the list of participants. The skaters did not show their free dance due to an aggravated back injury at Katsalapov. Won the Russian Championship in the absence of the most powerful pair of Alexander Stepanov and Ivan Bukin (223.37), the second was the young dance duet Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin (207.70). Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureiro were considered candidates for the third Olympic quota, but they went out on the ice unprepared due to their partner’s lingering infectious disease. Zagorski fell, which is by no means often in dancing, and after the rental, exhausted, they carried her to the locker room in her arms.
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