At the Russian Championships, single skaters are ready to amaze even themselves: who is the favorite

There may not even be two or three contenders for the crown. All sorts of surprises lurked behind the men’s shoulders. Forecasts in this type of figure skating this season need to be made very carefully. The words of young Vladislav Dikidzhi, who won gold at two stages of the Russian Grand Prix, may seem rather impudent to some: “Of course, I want to win. Who doesn’t want to? But they accurately reflect the essence of the sport.

However, the troublemaker of the local peace at the Dikiji Grand Prix stages speaks about his own goal in more detail: it is important for him to get into the national team at the end of the national championship, that is, into the top six at the championship. And for this, the two-time winner of the junior finals of the Russian Cup must do everything that depends on him. Vladislav made his debut at the Russian Championship two years ago, almost entered the top ten, and became eleventh. What’s interesting is that the stability of his jumps, due to which he was able to take the lead this season in his stages, was already with him then.

But performing at stages where your opponents are only part of the skaters is not a championship in its full scope of skill, complexity and expressiveness. Of course, seasoned singles skaters prepare for the main competition no less carefully than those just making their way to the top. And the worse their performances were this season, the more strictly they probably approached the work on mistakes.

Evgeny Semenenko won the Russian Championship last year. But then the aftertaste of the victory remained not only with Peter Gumennik, but, one can safely assume, with Zhenya himself. Semenenko and Gumennik ultimately scored the same number of points, but Evgeniy became the champion – due to a higher result in the free program. And everyone wants to win in such a way that no one compares with their opponents or doubts.

This season, Zhenya has not yet given any reason to say that he is in the best shape. But his character, technical equipment and endless search for images on the ice absolutely do not allow us to assume that we will not see a combat-ready Semenenko.

Petr Gumennik, who won silver in such dramatic fashion last year, went on to win the Grand Prix Final and finish as the top ranked skater. He has already celebrated the current season with an enchanting performance and explosive ratings; at the stage in Samara he scored 300.66 points in total over two performances, forcing him to compare himself with world leaders. These two, Evgeniy Semenenko and Peter Gumennik, have something to say on the ice, both to themselves and to each other.

The current form of Mark Kondratyuk is still unclear, but this fighter knows how not to give up. Everyone remembers how, during the Olympic season, Mark won the Russian championship, then the European championship, and after them he confidently performed at the 2022 Olympics in the team tournament (though he no longer had the strength to compete individually). This season, Kondratyuk experienced obvious problems; two clean skates were out of reach. But at the last stage of the Grand Prix, Mark became second. Although he himself admitted that the rentals were, again, far from ideal in many aspects, there has already been progress.

This season, Roman Savosin is ready to get involved in the fight for the podium; he amazed many with his strong performances at the Grand Prix stages. The figure skater, who disappeared after the Russian Championships in the Olympic season (taking 15th place) for almost two years, returned with the power of persuasion for the judges in the form of compelling arguments. Both technical and component. And – a clear thirst to win.

Dmitry Aliev can do everything. But stability, or rather the lack thereof, can quickly consume this “everything.” Andrey Mozalev and Makar Ignatov have the same problem. These skaters, like, undoubtedly, all high-level singles skaters who cannot cope with the emotions of starts, as Andrei said, are already “tired of being upset.” But perhaps now is the very moment when you need to give yourself complete freedom. There is nothing to lose, but there is something to gain. First of all – ourselves, stable and beautiful.

Alexander Samarin never won the Russian Championship, but he became its prize-winner five times, including the last one. Only a few can boast of such stability. I would like to believe that Chelyabinsk will also see the signature quadruple lutz performed by Samarin.

Gleb Lutfullin is from Alexei Mishin’s group, this says a lot at once: he has six jumps in four rotations for two programs. Alexey Erokhov can also do everything; in Omsk, a student of Victoria Butsaeva shocked the stands in a good way by performing a free program with three quadruple jumps. It remains to show this in Chelyabinsk. I wonder what Matvey Vetlugin will convince, who won in Omsk with one quadruple jump (the athlete only went to work in Alexei Mishin’s group at the age of 17).

All participants in the singles tournament in Chelyabinsk: Dmitry Aliev, Matvey Vetlugin, Pyotr Gumennik, Vladislav Dikidzhi, Alexey Erokhov, Fedor Zonov, Makar Ignatov, Mark Kondratyuk, Gleb Lutfullin, Andrey Mozalev, Daniil Postarnakov, Roman Savosin, Alexander Samarin, Daniil Samsonov, Evgeniy Semenenko, Semyon Solovyov, Grigory Fedorov, Ilya Yablokov.

Schedule of the Russian Figure Skating Championships

December 21, Thursday

11.00. Ice dancing, rhythm dance

13.30. Men’s short program

16.15. The opening ceremony

17.00. Pairs, short program

December 22, Friday

11.00. Ice dancing, free dance

13.45. Men’s free program

17.00. Women’s short program

December 23, Saturday

12.30. Pairs, free program

15.00. Women’s free program

December 24, Sunday

10.30. Award ceremony

11.30. Demonstration performances