Benefit performance of the Northern capital in the Southern Urals: what remained behind the scenes at the Russian Figure Skating Championship

In order to determine the composition of the national team for the European Championship, and after that to give the skaters the opportunity to earn money in New Year’s shows, in recent years the Russian Figure Skating Federation held the national championship at the end of the outgoing year. Now that our skaters have been suspended from international competitions, the traditions have not changed.

Meeting point – Chelyabinsk

For the third time in the last eight years, the capital of the Southern Urals hosted the national championship. It must be admitted that Chelyabinsk rightfully wins competitions for holding them. The figure skating tournament is patronized by the first lady of the region, public figure (as she is introduced) Irina Teksler. Governor Alexey Teksler himself is also involved in solving organizational issues. In the capital of the Southern Urals, everything was organized to the highest standard.

For the national championship, the exhibition “Time of Ice” was opened in one of the best exhibition halls in the city. Skaters, functionaries and even journalists did not have a single question for the organizers. The Traktor Ice Arena, where the competition took place, was filled with spectators all three days of the competition, and the demonstration performances were sold out. A huge number of activities for figure skating fans were held in the lobby.

Representatives of the Northern capital played leading roles in Chelyabinsk.

“Peter performs very powerfully, especially in men’s and pairs skating,” noted, summing up the results of the competition. O. President of the FFKKR and President of the Figure Skating Federation of St. Petersburg Anton Sikharulidze. — The girls are not yet leaders, but they are getting closer to them. If we talk about dancing, then until recently there simply wasn’t any in our city. In just two years we were able to change the situation, and today the dance duo from St. Petersburg is part of the national team.”

We also note the work of the press service of our city federation, which organized direct bridges from Chelyabinsk on social networks with all St. Petersburg figure skaters.

Our fans are not Zenit fans

The dance duo Ekaterina Mironova / Evgeniy Ustenko, which Sikharulidze mentioned, can boast of having their own fan club this season. A journalist from MK in St. Petersburg asked the dancers whether their fans could be compared with Zenit fans. Mironova honestly answered that she was very far from football. She is probably the only one in the sports world of St. Petersburg who does not know what Fun ID is and cannot distinguish Claudinho from Douglas Santos.

Her partner was more knowledgeable. He knows that there is Zenit in St. Petersburg, and even thinks it’s great. He also knows that Sergei Semak’s team plays at a beautiful stadium on Krestovsky Island. “That’s all I know,” Evgeniy admitted with a smile. And he added that indeed, in two years, the duo made a huge step forward, finally receiving conditions for training in their hometown.

It should be noted that this season in dance there has been a disintegration of promising duets with the subsequent creation of new ones. In terms of length of joint performances, Mironova and Ustenko are now second in Russia after Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, who became champions in Chelyabinsk.

All the faces in the photo are familiar

As you know, the Internet has everything. Figure skating fans found a photo on the Internet in which little skaters Vladik Dikidzhi, Zhenya Semenenko and Petya Gumennik posed. The subjects of the historical photograph themselves disagreed about where and when it was taken. Coach Oleg Tataurov, from whom all three trained as children, suggested that after one of the children’s competitions. Such an authoritative expert as Dikidzhi’s grandmother objected: “The guys were photographed after demonstration performances at a resort in the Leningrad region.”

Be that as it may, in Chelyabinsk Dikidzhi, Semenenko and Gumennik, after a press conference, the winners were asked to take photos in the same poses. The guys gladly fulfilled the wishes of the journalists. There will be no discrepancies regarding this photo.

The rivalry between the men was intense. Russian figure skaters follow international trends and claim the most difficult content in both short and free programs. But only a few managed to cope with the application in Chelyabinsk. On the first day of the competition, only four skaters managed without falls or blots while performing jumps.

Dikidzhi took the lead, followed by Semenenko with a slight lag, and in third position was Dmitry Aliev, who, with a surprisingly suitable program to the music of the Lyube group, managed to get around Gumennik, who fell at the end of the performance when landing from a triple Axel. In the free program, Peter did not take risks and limited himself to three quadruple jumps instead of the stated four.

The program “The Picture of Dorian Gray” itself, choreographed by the Tutberidze Team’s staff choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz, claims an unofficial prize for the best of the season in all figure skating disciplines. Together with coach Veronica Daineko, Tamara Moskvina, who had never worked with singles skaters, came up to the side during Peter’s performance. After all, Gumennik represents her club, as the eminent coach reminded the judges and everyone present. Aliev, who also has an excellent free program “Caruso”, at the very beginning, instead of a quadruple jump, performed a double jump and eventually lost to Gumennik.

The outcome in the fight for gold among men turned out to be dramatic. Semenenko in the image of Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of Romeo did not avoid blots. Evgeniy was too focused on performing difficult jumps, and this made the excellent program look, let’s say, not a masterpiece. At the Russian Grand Prix in Ufa, this Romeo was more convincing.

Dikiji coped brilliantly with three quadruple jumps. The last cascade remained, and instead of a double axel, Vladislav performed a single one. The difference in the price of these elements is only 2.2 points, but in the end Dikidzhi lost to Semenenko by 1.1! The turnover price in monetary terms amounted to a million rubles. After all, the FFKKR has established a solid prize fund: for first place 2.5 million, for second – 1.5 million, for third – million.

This season, Dikiji is perhaps the most stable in jumping elements, but his component scores do not yet reach the championship level. This is indicated by numerous experts whom the MK in St. Petersburg journalist, when asking a question to the silver medalist of the Russian Championship, called couch potatoes.

“And I agree with the ‘armchair experts,’” Vladislav replied. — I understand that my components are still lame. This season I focused on jumping and I think that I’m coping with the task so far.”

There were no words to congratulate the champions…

Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, who won silver in the skating competition, could learn the ability to objectively and self-critically evaluate their skating from the silver medalist among men. Especially the partner who took on the functions of speaker at the press conference of the winners. In Chelyabinsk, last year’s national champions made mistakes in both the short and free programs. Only Kozlovsky began his speech by recalling his and Boykova’s victories at the national championship and the succession of winners in recent years. Dmitry had no words to congratulate the champions.

In the spring, Alexandra and Dmitry left Tamara Moskvina, with whom they won their main victories in their careers, to join the group of Eteri Tutberidze. Having moved to Moscow, the skaters still represent St. Petersburg at competitions. It is difficult to even calculate the number of coaches who are currently working with silver medalists of the Russian Championship. Kozlovsky mentioned their merits, talking about what had changed in the couple’s performances.

“This season, the lifts have become easier, the twists are higher, the tops are better, the skating has improved,” Kozlovsky emphasized. “We can observe positive dynamics.”

Two questions inevitably arise: could the skaters have achieved the same progress while training with Moskvina, and why did they become champions last season and now take a step back? One of the current coaches of Boykova and Kozlovsky, on the sidelines of the Traktor ice arena, agreed with the MK in St. Petersburg journalist that last year’s Anna Karenina program was truly a championship and looked better than the current one with Vivaldi’s music.

Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, who never left Moskvina’s side and became champions, noted that they had learned from last year’s failure and managed to approach the national championship in optimal shape and cope with their anxiety. True, Gallyamov did not deny himself the pleasure of slightly trolling his main competitors on his page on the social network. After this, Boykova and Kozlovsky unfollowed him.

To the national team with all our strength

After Elizaveta Tuktamysheva took a break from her competitive career, 18-year-old Anna Frolova, who moved from Moscow in the summer, took over the role of leader of women’s skating in St. Petersburg. In Chelyabinsk, on both days of the competition, she entered the mixed zone wearing a mask.

“I got a cold at the wrong time! — the skater complained. — In the free program, I went out on the ice in such a state that I couldn’t think of anything. I just understood that I couldn’t let the coaches down, with whom we did a great job.”

As Anna admitted, the support of the audience helped her cope with all the difficulties. In the stands of the Traktor ice arena, her mother and sister were cheering for her. On the day of the free program, Frolova even reduced her skating to 12 minutes instead of the required 45. And yet she coped with the skating and eventually took 5th place, joining the national team.

The famous director Ilya Averbukh noted Frolova’s free program. It was choreographed by Olga Glinka, who works in Evgeny Rukavitsyn’s group. Recognition from a master of ice choreography is worth a lot. Frolova’s feminine and truly beautiful skating is liked by the audience even without the ultra-C elements that her younger rivals are chasing.

It’s a pity, of course, that the best St. Petersburg, and indeed all Russian, figure skaters will not yet be able to demonstrate their skills at international competitions. We can only be glad that the level of the Russian Championship is higher than the European Championship and comparable to the World Championship. Fans will be able to see the best St. Petersburg figure skaters at the end of January at the city championship, which will be held at the Academy. Panina-Kolomenkina.