The second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating ended on Sunday in Sochi. His main intrigue was the return to the competition of the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Beijing Alexandra Trusova. It did not turn out smooth: the skater could not perform a single ultra-difficult jump and took only third place in the women's competition. Her boyfriend, the winner of the 2022 Games team tournament Mark Kondratyuk, on the other hand, showed a near-optimal form and convincingly won the men's tournament.
New style without old jumps
Trusova, after the Olympic Games, went out to the public with competitive programs only once — at the test skates of the Russian team in Moscow at the end of September. And then not with two programs, but with one: the skater withdrew from the free skate. And after a short one, she said that she had a back injury, because of which she was not able to gain sufficient shape.Nevertheless, Trusova did not postpone the first start of the season scheduled for this weekend, although another difficulty was added to the injury. In connection with the change of the coaching staff (October 1, it was announced that the figure skater had left Eteri Tutberidze for Svetlana Sokolovskaya), Trusova changed both programs. And she had about three weeks to roll them — which, of course, is extremely short in order to appear in combat condition. However, the fans were looking forward to the release of this figure skater on the ice, even realizing that during the period of growing up and not in the best sports form, it would objectively be difficult for her to fight with the rising star of the Tutberidze group Adeleia Petrosyan, who already performed quadruple jumps at the September rentals. Everyone was interested — in what style will Trusova's programs be staged by the new coaching staff?
The style turned out, as one might have expected, to be uncharacteristic for Alexandra. Trusova performed a short program to the song of the French singer Indila, and then she said that for the first time in her life she chose the music herself. Free — to the well-known composition I Believe I Can Fly, but in the original processing by J2. jpg» />
However, it is difficult to say that these programs in Sochi sounded somehow special. Trusova, by and large, neither a short rental nor an arbitrary performance for her standard of performances failed. On Saturday, she made a mistake on the triple lutz combination. On Sunday, she fell off a quad lutz, the only ultra-si element she went for, and doubled a triple rittberger. Obviously, it will be possible to draw conclusions about the changes only when the figure skater, who made five quadruple jumps at the Olympics, although not all cleanly, prepares more serious technical content.
In a conversation with reporters, the silver medalist of the Games tried not to focus on her suboptimal form. “My first competition after the Olympics. It was always difficult for me to perform, this is not a matter of preparation, it’s just like that. I’m just worried. Of course, in the post-Olympic season it’s harder than it was. But I tried. Sunday after the free program. And before that, and on Saturday, she said that «the form is normal.» However, when asked about the injury, she answered: «I doubt that something can heal in three weeks, but I'm better.»
“Not everything worked out, but I’m happy that I skated my maximum and that everything went more or less at least. Three quads were planned, I just thought that if something goes wrong at the start, I’ll announce two just in case, — said the champion. — In the free program, I have complex music. There is a state of emptiness, detachment, and in the second half you start to get out of this, elements of madness appear. You have to work hard, think, transmit it.»
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Kondratyuk without competitors
In the men's competition at the Grand Prix stage in Sochi, a participant in the Beijing Olympics, the winner of the team tournament of the 2022 Games Mark Kondratyuk, also competed. Unlike his life partner, he appeared in almost optimal conditions — and even with new complex elements. Both in the short program and in the free program, he performed a four-turn lutz, which is consistently included in his technical arsenal this season.
In the short run, Kondratyuk also made a four-turn salchow, with a score of 104 and a half points, in fact, removing questions about the winner of the tournament even before the free program. However, on Sunday the Olympic champion was the best among all the participants, and the mistakes may be due to the fact that he and coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya decided to change the program after the September test skates.
“There wasn’t much time to roll everything out, the program was put on about three weeks ago. I think it will be gradually refined and rolled up, because today it was hard at the end. I expected it to be like this,” said the skater.< br>
Four skaters fought for the silver and bronze of the Sochi stage in the men's single skating. As a result, the more experienced ones achieved success, although they did not manage to show stable rentals. Alexey Erokhov was better in the short program and retained the second position in total. Petr Gumennik demonstrated a worthy free skate and after a breakdown on the first day he took the final third place.In pair skating, the favorites of the Sochi tournament were participants in the Olympic Games in Beijing Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky. They confirmed their class by outperforming competitors in both programs. But the main event of the stage for this couple, as Kozlovsky said, happened even before it began. .jpg» />
«At this stage, we did an important thing — we performed a quadruple twist at the official training. It was on Friday. Inserting an ultra-c element will radically change the structure of the program. In pair skating, the ultra-c element requires not only strength, but also technique, and skill, and complete control. It needs to be gradually integrated into the program. Otherwise, it's a risk. We want to approach these elements smoothly to the peak of the season, «said the skater.
Three pairs fought for silver and bronze, which, after the short program, were in the protocol in the range of 0.76 points. Free skate brought Anastasia Mukhortova and Dmitry Evgeniev to second place. The third were Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov. Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin started the free program briskly, but then the partner fell from a jump and a throw, and after the second fall, she did not immediately manage to get up from the ice. According to the pair's coach Fyodor Klimov, Akopova competed at this tournament with a chronic injury. » />
In ice dancing, as in the first stage of the Grand Prix, no surprises could happen — there was too much difference in the class between four participating duets. Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Egor Bazin won, over 20 points ahead of Irina Khavronina and Dario Chirizano. Alisa Krainyukova and Semyon Netsev became third.
The third stage of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating will be held next week in Kazan.