All grown up: what to expect from figure skaters at the Russian Jumping Championships
On January 18 and 19, St. Petersburg's Yubileiny Sports Complex will host the third ever Russian Jump Elements Championship. It will not feature the usual short and free skating programs, but will show the most risky elements of figure skating - jumps and long cascades. There will be no subjective scores for the components, only dry scores for the elements performed. Every year not only the format of the tournament improves, but also the athletes themselves move forward. Let's look at the new rules, elements and another attempt to bring the format to perfection.
Following Malinin
This year the organizers took into account the mistakes of the previous tournament, when the entire podium was occupied by representatives of the younger generation. This time only adult skaters were invited to the tournament, based on the results of the Russian Championships. 16 men, eight girls and six sport pairs will take part in the jumping battle.
Another fundamental change is the absence of duels in the individual tournament, now the competition is held on the principle of "on the fly", but with a common table. Participants with the worst results will be eliminated until the final round. Thanks to this innovation it is impossible to repeat last year's situation, when Evgeny Semenenko could not reach the final because of a duel with Arseniy Fedotov, and Ivan Popov with a weaker set of jumps took the silver medal.
It should be noted that at the first Jumping Championships the quadruple axel in the elements table was just a formality, but this time it is likely that we will see this unique jump performed by Russian champion Vladislav Dikidzhi.
- There is such an idea (to jump a quadruple axel. - Ed.), it will depend on many circumstances. We have such in our plans that we will just jump it, - Oleg Tataurov, the skater's coach, told the media.
Previously, only American Ilya Malinin managed to successfully perform a jump in four and a half turns at official competitions, but in the summer Vladislav decided to impose Ilya in absentia and posted a video of a successful attempt at a quaxel with only a small under-twist, and now he is already performing the most difficult jump in a cascade with a triple tulup. In addition to Dikidji, Gleb Lutfullin and Nikolay Ugozhaev repeatedly attempted to perform this jump, but all their attempts were with strong under-twists and falls. The quadruple axel may turn out to be the first ever in Russia, although there is some debate about how much of the tournament can be considered a full-fledged jump - ISU doesn't have one. Plus, Dikidji is the main contender for the Olympic qualifying tournament. Shouldn't you be careful?
Star support
In the pairs, we will again see quadruple ejection attempts from Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky. The duo prepares the ultra-si for the vault tournament in training, but they don't always perform it cleanly in public. Anastasia Mukhortova and Dmitry Evgenyev have a chance for another doubles super element. In a recent interview the guys told about their dialog with Maxim Trankov.
- I came up after a training session where Boikova and Kozlovsky did a quadruple throw and I said, "Max (addressing Trankov), do you think we can do it?", he replied, "Yes, of course, she's spinning so fast, she'll twist it herself". That is, my work, I think, there will not be so big, the main thing is that Anastasia was not hurt there, - told "Izvestia" Dmitry Evgenyev.
Of the girls, most likely, only Alina Gorbacheva and Eteri Tutberidze's students Adelia Petrosyan, Daria Sadkova and Sofia Akatieva will go to the ultra-si. They have already shown quadruple jumps in the season.
This time the team competition will be held under the flags of two capitals - Moscow versus St. Petersburg. The team of the Northern Capital will also include athletes training in other regions. On the second day of the competition only those participants who showed the best result in the individual tournament will compete.
It may happen that Anna Frolova, the best singles skater of St. Petersburg without quadruple jumps, will qualify for the team event, but there will be no places left for the quad, as all the girls with ultra-si skills train in Moscow or Moscow region.
The "queen of quads" Alexandra Trusova (Ignatova) and "empress" Elizaveta Tuktamysheva are planning to support the skaters. It is worth paying tribute to Alexandra - she will work, if you believe the Super publication, on the third month of pregnancy.
In addition to the five main rounds, new formats are announced in the final of the team competition: the championship round and team Challenges. The organizers did not provide specific rules, but we have already seen something similar at the First Channel Cup last season. Judging by the comments of the fans and the skaters themselves, the experience was successful. Once again, the author's tournament of the figure skating federation and Channel One promises to attract attention.
Composition:
Men: Vladislav Dikidzhi, Gleb Lutfullin, Evgeny Semenenko, Petr Gumennik, Mark Kondratyuk, Makar Ignatov, Daniil Samsonov, Ivan Popov, Dmitry Aliev, Roman Savosin, Andrey Mozalev, Matvey Vetlugin, Mikhail Ternovsky, Nikolay Ugozhaev, Grigory Fedorov, Artur Danielyan
Women: Adelia Petrosyan, Daria Sadkova, Alina Gorbacheva, Sofia Muravyeva, Sofia Akatieva, Anna Frolova, Veronika Yametova, Ksenia Gushchina.
Pairs: Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov, Alexandra Boykova/Dmitry Kolovsky, Natalia Khabibulina/Ilya Knyazhuk, Anastasia Mukhortova/Dmitry Evgeniev, Elizaveta Osokina/Artem Gritsayenko, Yasmina Kadyrova/Ilya Mironov.
Competition schedule
January 18, Saturday
14:00 - 20:30 - Individual tournament in three events: men's singles, women's singles and pairs skating
January 19, Sunday
14:00 - 18:00 - Team Tournament
