Kamila Valieva in search of a sheepskin coat – Sport – Kommersant
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One of the most popular Russian figure skaters Kamila Valieva has added another one to her collection of awards. The athlete, who won a convincing victory at the opening stage of the Russian Grand Prix series in Moscow two weeks ago, has now beaten her rivals by a colossal margin in Kazan. Without quadruple jumps, and not least thanks to the judges’ favor, she outperformed her closest pursuer Veronika Yametova by more than 30 points. Two stage victories guaranteed Kamila Valieva access to the final. The silver medalists of the Beijing Games, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who showed a result higher than the world record in Kazan, will definitely go there.
Kamila Valieva, who was considered the absolute favorite of all the tournaments in which she took part last season, continues to maintain this status in the current one. Although the skater no longer has the former technical power, that is, the elements of “ultra-si”, as well as the former lightness, she still beats her competitors with a huge margin.
Two weeks ago, 16-year-old Valieva defeated her rivals at the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix in Megasport with a fall, ahead of Sofya Akatieva with two four-turn jumps and a triple axel. Now the champion of Russia and Europe won (241.72) at the Kazan tournament, overtaking silver medalist Veronika Yametova (210.34) and finishing third Ksenia Sinitsyna (207.55) by more than 30 points.
This stage, which took place in Valieva’s hometown, turned, it seems, into her benefit performance.
Most of the audience seats were occupied by her fans, among whom were the chairman of the Central Bank (CB) of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina and the sought-after youth performer Ivan Dmitrienko.
In the short program, Valieva, who still did not include her last year’s trump card – the three and a half turn axel, did without visible failures. And the inaccuracy in the cascade of a triple lutz and a triple sheepskin coat, which, according to the athlete, she had to “pull out”, was not reflected in the judges’ protocols.
The next day, in the free program, which Valieva presented immediately after the number of the main rival Veronika Yametova “Circus du Soleil”, she succeeded in everything except for one element – the quadruple sheepskin coat.
At the very beginning of the performance, Valieva, leaving the jump, fell sideways and almost crashed into the side, but quickly orientated herself and avoided a collision.
However, the arbitrators also decided not to find fault with this element: several judges rated the sheepskin coat not at “-5”, but at “-4”.
The figure skater who presented the program about what happened to her at the Beijing Olympics doping drama, decided to arrange another performance at the end of it. Valieva did not leave the ice, but, having exchanged a few words with the coach Eteri Tutberidze standing behind the side, she tried – already outside the program, but, so to speak, for an encore – to make a quadruple sheepskin coat again. The attempt failed. Then the figure skater, to the loud applause of the fans, who continued to shake posters with images of the athlete, went for another round. The second attempt – and again the fall.
Although the girl could not show a clean quadruple jump, she herself seemed to be very pleased anyway.
“If they tell me not to do that, I won’t do it again. It was a fleeting desire, ”the athlete later told reporters.
Two gold medals in the stages mean that Kamila Valieva – so far the only one among all the singles – secured her place in the series final. It will take place in early March.
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morzov, who compete in sports pairs, definitely made their way there. Athletes who broke the free program at the Moscow stage and sensationally remained there only with silver, corrected the situation in Kazan. On Sunday, Tarasova and Morozov received gold and 157.56 points for their performance, which can be called impeccable, a result that exceeds the world record. Meanwhile, they would not have remained without a pedestal, even if they made a mistake on all the elements: only two duets competed with them. Yasmina Kadyrova and Valery Kolesov finished second, Yulia Artemyeva and Alexei Bryukhanov rounded out the top three.
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