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As reported by several sources, the winner of last year’s Russian Grand Prix final in dancing, who was left without a partner, on the ice, 20-year-old Valery Angelopol can pair up with 16-year-old Alexandra Shinkarenko, who is now competing with Vladislav Mikhailov in junior competitions.
Where Shinkarenko started
The duet Shinkarenko/Mikhailov was remembered for the project “Ice Age. Children”, in which they won. In an interview with one of the St. Petersburg newspapers, Oksana Shinkarenko, Alexandra’s mother, then said: “Sashka has been a very intelligent girl since childhood. At the age of 3.5 she learned to read fluently. We promised to give her a phone if she wrote text messages, so she wrote them with mobile phone from kindergarten, while her peers were playing with dolls. She was bored in kindergarten, and the head simply kicked Sasha out to school when she turned six.»
Having seen a photo of an athlete in a beautiful swimsuit, the girl decided to take up rhythmic gymnastics. They didn’t take me to the section, considering the age to be “retirement” for this sport. Arriving for an interview with the school psychologist, Sasha saw an advertisement for enrollment in a rhythmic gymnastics group, where everyone is accepted. And she literally forced her mother to take her there. A month later, the girl asked to be transferred to another coach. “I can’t train when they don’t believe in me!” — Alexandra stated decisively.
As an exception, the girl was accepted into a specialized sports school in her native Voronezh. She was in the top five at regional competitions in rhythmic gymnastics, but at the age of nine she changed her sports specialization. The school where Sasha studied was closed for quarantine, and the parents bought skates for their daughter so that she would not get bored during the holidays. A few days later she said: “I realized that I am a figure skater.”
Both parents and rhythmic gymnastics coaches discouraged Alexandra from changing her sport so radically. Shinkarenko was lucky that the mother of one of the gymnasts with whom she trained turned out to be a figure skating coach at a private school. At first, nine-year-old Alexandra studied in a group with those who were 3-4 years old. She took additional lessons and, despite everyone’s skepticism, during the first year of figure skating she consistently completed all youth categories.
A year later, the family moved from Voronezh to Moscow, where figure skating classes continued at a serious level. Together with Vlad Mikhailov, a girl with a good stretch and an iron character was placed in the group of Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin. There they did not object to the participation of young skaters in the project “Ice Age. Children”. According to Svinin, this helped the guys feel like artists on ice. After winning the project, Ilya Averbukh often invited young skaters to participate in his shows, where they became full-fledged partners of famous skaters.
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“The performance of young figure skaters in our ice performances is a touching moment,” Povilas Vanagas, prize-winner of the World and European Championships, told the author of these notes. — In Tatyana Navka’s show, according to the script, I had to go on the ice after Shinkarenko and Mikhailov. The guys did a great job with their game. Especially the girl who simply beamed when she went out on the ice,”
Angelopol is serious
After the Averbukh Academy was formed, the winners of his television project went to train there. Until recently, Elena Maslennikova and Ruslan Zhiganshin worked with Shinkarenko and Mikhailov, and Averbukh himself got involved in the work. Last season, the duo became the silver medalist of the Russian Championship among senior figure skaters, and this season they won bronze at the Moscow Championship for their age. At the Junior Grand Prix stage in Omsk, Shinkarenko and Mikhailov were third, and in Moscow — fifth. Surprisingly, Sasha and Vlad grew up almost simultaneously, and the duet on the ice looks very organic.
It is the difference in height that can become a serious obstacle to the creation of the Shinkarenko/Angelopol duet. Although Valery had been trying on this partner for a long time and even asked her about her height. Another problem is the difference in the training of dancers today. Shinkarenko will have to catch up with a more experienced and skilled partner. There is no doubt about her efficiency and patience. The prospects of conflicts that destroyed the duet of Angelopol and Vasilisa Kaganovskaya are also excluded.
True, coach Natalya Linichuk did not see the guys on the ice together, who, according to the source, insisted on the breakup of the duet of Angelopol and Arina Ushakova. For an experienced coach, creating a new duet can be a challenge. Linichuk had both the experience of pairing Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov, who had already achieved success with Elena Kustarova, and an attempt to break up the duet of the future Olympic champions of Turin, when she paired the future soloist of “Brilliant” Anna Semenovich with Roman Kostomarov.