Ural roulette: who will win the Russian Grand Prix final in Petrosyan's absence

From March 6-9, Chelyabinsk will host the main Russian competition of the second half of the season, the Grand Prix Final. And this is probably the best place to hold it. Even St. Petersburg, which hosts most of the tournaments in 2025-2026, is inferior in atmosphere to the Ural city. Figure skaters are always given memorable merch here, buffets and buffets are organized, and there is a lot of entertainment for fans in the halls for every taste. And the fans like it — even at the junior competitions, a full house gathered on a weekday. As a final argument in favor of organizing major starts in Chelyabinsk, let us recall the words of Peter Gumennik at the Olympics — he tried to imagine that not at the Milan Games, but at a tournament in this city. That's what Tamara Moskvina advised him.

Beat Peter

In recent days, Humennik has become very popular and at the same time responsible — at the Games he proved himself almost perfect not only in terms of rentals, but also in his ability to behave in public. Many tops skip the rest of the season after such an event to recover, but not Petya. He said that his form is still excellent, he loves to perform, that's why he will be in Chelyabinsk.

Humennik went to the Olympics. But does he tactically need the Grand Prix final this season? Rather, yes, there are no less strong competitors in Russia than in the international arena, at least here the fate of getting into the national team is being decided. If we still continue to hope that our skaters will be allowed to participate in more than domestic tournaments in the foreseeable future, then there will be few quotas — apparently, only one in sight at first. And here it is important for Peter to show that he deserves it.

The competitors are all the same people who are strong both artistically and technically (each in their own way): Mark Kondratyuk, Evgeny Semenenko, Vladislav Dikigi. Let's not forget about Matvey Vetlugin, Gleb Lutfullin and Nikolai Ugozhaev. In general, almost any of the 12 participants in the final can qualify for the top three. And all of them would probably like to show that they are capable of beating a recent participant in the Olympics. And he wants to confirm that he was selected for the Games for a reason.

Vacant position

But Chelyabinsk will not see the second heroine of the Olympics this time. Adelia Petrosyan was not sure about participating in the finals either during the Milan Games (which was reasonable, there were other tasks there) or afterwards, for example, at the airport, when she was harassed by journalists after arrival. The past year has generally been one of the most difficult in Adelia's life — the constant pressure and expectation of an Olympic medal, an endless series of injuries and attempts to recover not only the elements of ultra-c, but also just triple jumps.

Logically, Petrosyan is just tired. Maybe she didn't want to push her luck — there was a chance she would lose to someone who stayed at home in Russia. Or it's finally time to just relax. In any case, Adelia's choice, like Peter's, is clear and logical, even though the outcome is different. I would like to see the figure skater healthy and energized next season.

In Petrosyan's absence, the leadership position is vacant. But there is an obvious favorite — this is Adelia's classmate Alisa Dvoeglazova, who won the Russian Jumping Championship this year, and in December became the silver medalist of the classical championship. If Alice skates cleanly or with a minimum number of errors, then it seems that she should have no rivals — in the free program, Dvoeglazova has the strongest jump set. If she makes gross mistakes, then there are possible options: among the contenders for prizes are Maria Zakharova and Daria Sadkova, Kamilla Nelyubova and Dina Khusnutdinova, who possess elements of ultra—si, as well as Anna Frolova and Sofia Muravyeva, who are inferior to the above in terms of content, but strong in the component part.

It's a noble cause

Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov will try to take revenge from Alexandra Boikova in pair skating/Dmitry Kozlovsky for losing the Russian Championship. This partially worked out at the jumping tournament, where both pairs went to throw a quadruple salchow, but no one got an element in the purely competitive program. Now there will be an opportunity to prove themselves at the classic start — and both duos will probably take risks.

Gallyamov even posted on social media a jump request in a free program, including a triple lutz sequence, a solo triple flip, two quadruple throws and a quadruple twist. The content is powerful, but most likely Sasha just whetted interest in greenhouse competitions — no one has ever performed this before, and it can only be compared with Ilya Malinin's seven quads in the free program.

Risk is a noble thing, but it can also help other couples rise above third place if the leaders make mistakes. First of all, this concerns Ekaterina Chikmareva./Matvey Yanchenkov, who have everything to be at the top.

In ice dancing, everything is more transparent — the main contenders for medals will be the same duets that won medals at the Russian championships: Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Vasilisa Kaganovskaya/Maxim Nekrasov and Elizabeth Pasechnik/By Dario Cirizano. Do not forget about Ekaterina Mironova./Evgenia Ustenko, who stopped a step away from the coveted award.

The Grand Prix final, although it missed several important participants, Anastasia Mukhortova/Dmitry Evgeniev in pairs, Anna Shcherbakova/Egor Goncharov in dancing, Ksenia Sinitsina and Adelia Petrosyan in singles, still remains the top tournament in terms of composition. It was at this tournament last year that the candidates for the trip to the Olympic Games were determined. If we continue to dream about admission to international competitions, maybe even now the competition in Chelyabinsk will become a key one in terms of selection for future tournaments.

Competition schedule (start time is Moscow time)

Friday, March 6th

16:30 Couples. Short program
18:00 Dancing. Rhythm dance

Saturday, March 7th

13:00 Women. Short program
15:00 Men. Short program

Sunday, March 8th

13:00 Couples. Any program
14:40 Dancing. Free dance

Monday, March 9th

13:00 Women. Any program
15:10 Men. Any program