Test skates in St. Petersburg: Semenenko and Kozlovsky have injuries

Only at the end of September will the test skates of the members of the figure skating team take place in Moscow. They will be held at Megasport on September 24–25. Preparing for them, according to statements, is also everything. The exception, as is known for sure at the moment, is Anna Shcherbakova (knee), who has recently been operated on, and Alena Kostornaya (thigh), who has not yet undergone surgery, but is about to expect it. But the day before the rentals, the lists of participants usually undergo major changes.

Then – from October to November, the skaters will travel around the stages of the Grand Prix – ours, of course. Five Russian cities will host six starts, Moscow will rejoice and delight twice. Also – Samara, Kazan, Perm, Sochi.

There will also be the final of the domestic Grand Prix, which will be held in early March, and not in December, like the international one. After the Grand Prix finals, foreign skaters will have the European Championship and the World Championship, our athletes will look (or not look, who decides how) on them from the outside.

In the meantime, adult athletes are beginning to estimate for the test skates. From 6 to 7 September, test skating of the St. Petersburg national team will take place. And this is a strong men’s group: Mikhail Kolyada, Dmitry Aliev, Andrey Mozalev, Makar Ignatov, Petr Gumennik, and the leaders of our pair skating, and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who alone can gather spectators to all the stands. Skating in St. Petersburg is open for the first time, everyone can look at the figure skaters at the Figure Skating Academy, unlike in Moscow – for free.

The preview of the programs with which the athletes are ready to enter the season in St. Petersburg has also lost some of the participants. For example, Evgeny Semenenko will not perform. According to coach Tatyana Mishina, Zhenya is still worried about the injury received at the training camp in Courchevel, where the figure skaters of Alexei Mishin’s group were preparing. The coach hopes that the knee, which “aches”, will enable Evgeny to perform later in Moscow.

The bronze medalists of the World Championship Alexander Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky will not appear before the specialists these days either. The partner, according to trainer Tamara Moskvina, is recovering from a microtrauma. By the way, in the new season Boikova and Kozlovsky will perform a free program to the music for the film “Anna Karenina”.

But their colleagues both in the national team and in the group, Olympic medalists in the individual competition Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov will be at the rentals in St. Petersburg. And they will show a short program to the Second Waltz of Shostakovich, an arbitrary program on the themes of Elvis Presley’s hits is still in the process of preparation.

Anastasia Gulyakova will not perform, and it is not very clear whether she will continue her career. According to coach Alexei Mishin, the figure skater is at a crossroads: to remain an athlete or become a coach. “She is looking for herself, is determined. Nastya is a talented girl, now she has the age that allows her to think about her future life path. Gulyakova is 20 years old, Nastya won the final of the Russian Cup, was the bronze medalist of the Russian stage of the Grand Prix series.

Arthur Danielyan, who has just moved to the group of Evgeny Rukavitsyn from the group of Elena Buyanova, will also not perform in St. Petersburg, which is quite understandable. An athlete who made an unexpected decision to change both the coach and even the city (at least, this is how it looks from the outside, why it was necessary, for example, to set up programs with the former mentor, and then heroically rush into setting up new ones a month before the test skates), conducts only the first training on the new ice. Evgeny Rukavitsyn promises to do everything in their power to prepare for the test skates in Moscow.

St. Petersburg viewers will not see Elizaveta Nugumanova, who has been making noise all summer with loud accusations against her own coaching staff (according to the athlete, she was not allowed to train in the Rukavitsyn group, she was accused of being overweight, humiliated and even threatened in every possible way).

The bad story ended with the transition of the single skater to the coach Sokolova, who leads the dance group. Not for the sake of going into dancing, Lisa moved there, remains in her form. According to Elena Sokolova, Nugumanova has known her well and for a long time, and it looked something like this: a question came from Lisa, we gave an answer. Elizabeth skips rentals due to illness: she says that it is still difficult to make plans for how everything will develop further.

And this is a question of questions for all skaters. So far, not a single famous athlete, as happens in some sports, has announced that he is suspending his career for a year – skipping the season. But everything is possible, for someone without an announcement, but, as they say, in fact.

In the meantime, many athletes follow the path of Alexandra Trusova: they try themselves in other sports. Have fun and entertain others. The vice-champions of the Olympic Games Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov have just taken part in the swims at the water sports festival. They say they will continue to “walk on Sapah”. Swimming on a fashionable board succeeded. And the famous figure skater Alexander Enbert was glad that “everyone came out of the race dry – this was the minimum task for us.”

There is also a minimum task for domestic skaters for the upcoming season: to enter it.

Russian Grand Prix

“Golden Skate of Moscow”, 1st stage

Moscow, October 21–23

“Velvet Season”, 2nd stage

Sochi, October 28–30

Idel-2022, 3rd stage

Kazan, November 4–6

“Moscow Stars”, 4th stage

Moscow, November 11–13

“Volga pirouette”, 5th stage

Samara, November 16–18

“For the prizes of the Governor of the Perm Territory”, 6th stage

Perm, November 25–27

Russian Grand Prix Final

Sochi, March 3–5