Bet on the Blues: Shcherbakova's team won the All-Star Figure Skating Match

Anna Shcherbakova's team ("blue") She became the winner of the Channel One Cup – 2025 with a score of 101 points. The second was the team of Alina Zagitova ("red", 95 points), the third was the team of Alexandra Ignatova ("white", 92 points). On the second day of the tournament in Chelyabinsk, figure skaters (men, women and dance duets) showed free programs, and also competed in the relay team tournament.

The excitement in the city

The Channel One Cup in Chelyabinsk is not only the last sports start for Russian figure skaters this season, but also the last opportunity to see the leaders of our figure skating in one place. The party was a success, but there were nuances.

It was extremely difficult to get tickets to the Traktor arena, which is modest by today's standards, a week before the rentals. If yesterday, during the first day, the rare empty seats reserved for VIP guests behind the judges were still gaping, then on this day the stands were packed to capacity.

Moreover, quite a large part of the fans were guests of the capital of the Southern Urals. The overwhelming popularity of figure skating in Russia has long accustomed us to seeing fans coming from completely different parts of the country at competitions. So trying to book a room in a multi-storey hotel adjacent to the arena was pointless. While the hockey tractor, which is the first in the "East", went on a field trip, the north-west of Chelyabinsk turned into a center of attraction for figure skating for several days.

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The Channel One Cup, which will be held next weekend, promises to be interesting.

After the first day of competition, Anna Shcherbakova's "blue" team took the lead, scoring 58 points after four of the eight sports. Behind her were the usual "reds", the wards of Alina Zagitova, who were separated from the first place in the standings by only five points. But the "white" team, led by Alexandra Ignatova (Trusova), who made her debut in Chelyabinsk as captain, was quickly written off by many, looking at the modest 42 points in the piggy bank.

The relay races were successful

As a year earlier, the organizers diluted the traditional competitive rentals with author contests. On Saturday, there was a variety of skill competitions for couples and dance duets, as well as a jumping competition that has become familiar. On Sunday (March 16), the routine was diluted with team relay races, which were painfully reminiscent of the "Fun Starts" familiar to every child.

Watching the athletes' eyes light up like a child, it seemed that they got much more pleasure from the off-set part than from full-fledged rentals. Cirizano fell, Mironova fell, Vazhnova broke one of the chips — sweet chaos.

The relay races were really successful and were relatively clear from the point of view of the rules. But the intrigue in the fight for victory did not work out — the Olympic system with points, not the sum of scores, failed again, and the "blues", led by Shcherbakova, won the tournament ahead of schedule even before the men's free skate. Alina Zagitova already announced during the last rental of Daniil Samsonov: "We won the second place!"

The men's juniors won

The margin in points allowed, for example, Nikolai Ugozhaev to fail the program to the epic and disturbing music of Ryuichi Sakamoto. The surname is special for figure skating. But there were also great rentals. Daria Sadkova said goodbye to her Je T'aime (and thank God) perfect two fours and did not let go of her grip on the following elements. Junior Lev Lazarev arrived and rolled out all the adults with four quads and a fall on the fifth — and the juniors rolled their usual programs, which have one less track, which costs 3-4 points!

At the Lazareva rental, even Zagitova was already holding back with the microphone working, and after the end, the DJ turned on the hit "Sigma Boy" for Lev.

Although Alina could not do without a meme again. During the rental of Ksenia Gushchina, she "stuffed" a situational ward and called her lazy.

"I forbid you to fall! Come on, come on! Until the end, damn it! Why are you so lazy? I didn't understand!" — the captain switched to the masculine gender.

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I liked how Nikita Sarnovsky played in front of the camera, who involuntarily repeated the sign of tennis player Ben Shelton with a telephone receiver at the end.

Of course, the All-Star Match tournament can be improved. But it's good that such a tradition has appeared. I was surprised that Channel One even showed the decisive day in the television version on the record, although it allocated two hours of the broadcast schedule for the tournament. The questions at the press conference could have been sharper - we remember the glorious battles of Zagitova and Medvedeva. After all, we still don't know what happened to Shcherbakova and Trusova's European Championship medals.

But in general, this tournament has taken its deserved place in the season finale. Now all my thoughts are about the "Russian Challenge" and the offseason, which will be marked by the preparation of someone (we don't know who yet) for the Olympic selection.