Juniors rule the ball – Sport – Kommersant

The performances of the girls attracted the most attention at the junior test skates in Novogorsk, which traditionally open the season in figure skating. Representatives of this generation are, on the one hand, the most unlucky: their situation was aggravated first against the background of suspension from all international competitions, and then even more strongly due to the tightening of the age limit initiated by the International Skating Union (ISU). The same generation can also be described as the strongest in history: more than half of the juniors tried to perform elements of the ultra-si category in Novogorsk, and this is without taking into account the two masters of quadruple jumps from the group of Eteri Tutberidze – Sofya Akatieva and Adelia Petrosyan who did not get there.

The new season in figure skating at the base in Novogorsk was opened by junior test skates. Athletes who will be the first to feel the consequences of the ISU age reform performed there. It comes down to a gradual tightening of the qualifications for reaching the adult level from 15 to 17 years. Many of those athletes who, according to the old rules, could join the fight for medals in one season, will be forced to stay in juniors right up to 2025. Although their average level is actually much higher than that of the generations of their predecessors.

In Novogorsk, in the short program, the skaters did not perform ultra-complex jumps. But this is understandable: quads are prohibited there, as is the solo axel in three and a half turns. It can be done in a cascade, but this is too big a risk. Given these circumstances, all the girls, including the very youngest, programs were stuffed from a technical point of view to the limit.

And the combination of 13 out of 14 athletes was in the so-called plus zone, that is, it was performed at the very end of the program for additional allowances.

Such a jump set some six or seven years ago seemed like a luxury that allowed me to win the most important competitions. With exactly the same content in the short program – a double axel, a cascade of lutz with a sheepskin coat and a solo loop – Evgenia Medvedeva, for example, won two world championships – 2016 and 2017, and then took silver at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics.

The next day, in the free program, where quads can be jumped in unlimited quantities, the Russian skaters did not neglect them. If during the previous Olympic cycle, these elements, being juniors, were attempted by a few – Alexandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, and later Kamila Valieva with the American Alice Liu, now ultra-si attempts can be found in the protocols of half of the participants – 7 out of 14.

Most of these attempts came out, however, unsuccessful, which can be attributed to the beginning of the season, but there were a number of interesting exceptions. So, for example, the 13-year-old student of Eteri Tutberidze, Alisa Dvoeglazova, performed the most difficult and expensive of the quadruple jumps – Lutz with her arms up. Her rival Veronika Zhilina, who trains under the guidance of two-time Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko, landed three quads plus an Axel. True, she landed two – salchow and sheepskin coat in a cascade. Lyubov Rubtsova also excelled: she has a clean exit from the triple axel.

The total number of elements of the ultra-c class would, of course, be even greater if two notable juniors competed in Novogorsk – 15-year-old Sofya Akatieva and Adelia Petrosyan. But both figure skaters, churning out quadruple jumps, received an invitation to perform at the September skates for adults.

Meanwhile, another pupil of Eteri Tutberidze, Arseniy Fedotov, became the main star of youth rentals.

Last season, he took medals at all competitions in which he took part. One of the youngest athletes (he is only 12 years old, and 18-year-olds skated with him in Novogorsk) collected content that was by no means childish: a quadruple sheepskin coat and two combinations with a triple axel. If Fedotov continues to increase the difficulty, he can not only take a place in the elite of Russian figure skating, but, apparently, save Tutberidze from the reputation of a “female” coach. After all, she didn’t have top singles men before.

Ekaterina Remizova