Crystal Showdown: who will be the favorite of the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix

The second stage of the Russian Grand Prix of Figure Skating will be held in Krasnoyarsk from November 2 to 3. Among the main intrigues, it is worth highlighting the struggle between Sofia Akatieva and Alina Dvoeglazova and another unpredictable men's competition, where five skaters have approximately equal chances of success. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Singles

The women have two obvious favorites from the same Eteri Tutberidze group: Akatieva and Dvoeglazova. The first is the champion of Russia in 2023, but in the last two years, after an injury, she has lost the elements of ultra—xi and is fighting for survival in the sport. Skating and experience speak for her — Sofia definitely knows how to glide, although her images are more often lyrical and minor. Alice performs to a groovy ABBA in a free program and goes to several fours — however, she regularly falls off the lutz. Judging by her direct speech, she herself is aware of the status of the favorite of the entire season.

In the case of Akatieva's clean and soulful triple jumps and Dvoeglazova's quadruple mistakes, the question of victory should remain open. But "in theory" and in reality, things in figure skating are not always related. According to a similar scheme with numerous mistakes, Dvoeglazova won a point from Ksenia Gushchina at the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial, although she made only one quadruple and fell from the other two, making a mistake also on the triple lutz.

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Sofya Vazhnova should calmly take the bronze, Maria Elisova with a triple axel, representing the Tula region, stands out among her rivals, but the young figure skater still has obvious problems with skating and artistry, and the program rather resembles jumping races. Anna Lyashenko is an interesting coach — the Rostov resident was brought to the junior rentals two months ago by the Olympic champion of Sochi 2014 Yulia Lipnitskaya.

Traditionally, the unpredictability of results is higher for men, and it makes sense to talk about a pool of applicants for medals and a prize fund of 1 million rubles (500 thousand – 300 thousand – 200 thousand). These are Nikolai Ugozhaev, Grigory Fedorov, Andrey Mozalev, Daniil Samsonov and Matvey Vetlugin (with an avant-garde figure skating program- a biography of Alexander II).

Couples

The undisputed favorite of the couples is Boikova./Kozlovsky, who needs to regain confidence in the run-up: a) the next stage of the Grand Prix, where you will have to fight with the principal rivals of Mishina/Gallyamov, who have won the last six duels; b) next season, in which the possible return of Russian athletes to the international arena is expected. But silver and bronze for any other pair can be a breakthrough to the top in the eyes of judges and experts.

Perhaps for the first time in a long time, dancing can be considered the most important sport at the Grand Prix stage. The long-term leaders of the national team, Alexander Stepanov, are returning to the cage/Ivan Bukin. And during their absence, a young duo appeared in the country, which is called the future of Russian dancing and which the federation is betting on: Vasilisa Kaganovskaya./Maxim Nekrasov. They were in the reserve of the Olympic team and probably wanted to be in the base. The first meeting of the new season, and it promises to be tough. It's a pity that the skaters themselves don't promote such stories in the media, but rather like to talk about friendship and chewing gum.