She took second place in the protocol, lagging behind the intermediate leader of Canada's Kathleen Osmond by one and a half points. At the same time, the Russian woman herself considered that she skated this part in Beijing better than two weeks earlier in Moscow.
Her free program turned out to be even better. All seven of her jumps Radionova performed flawlessly.
Not all, of course, were given to her easily. For example, in the latter, the domestic figure skater was close to losing her balance. But she got out of a difficult situation with dignity.
As a result, Radionova excelled in the tournament with worthy result for the sum of two programs - 205.90. Osmond was almost 10 points behind her (196.00). Together with the second place at the Russian stage of the Grand Prix, the current result allowed our athlete to reach the final of the series, which is scheduled for December 8-11 in Marseille.
Thus, the 17-year-old Radionova will take part in the decisive box office for the fourth consecutive season. In the 2013/14 draw, she debuted with fourth place, and in the following years she won silver and bronze, respectively. For the nominally strongest single skater of the country, the upcoming final will also be the fourth in her career, but only the second adult. In fact, she is the reigning champion.
Our second participant in the Beijing tournament, Elizaveta, improved her position by moving from fourth place on Friday to the final third (192.57).
She managed to knock out the Japanese Mai Mihara from the pedestal, but the Russian woman will not go to Marseille anyway. This is to blame for the unsuccessful (relatively, of course) performance at the second stage of the Grand Prix in Canada, where Tuktamysheva “won” that very offensive wooden medal. For her, the current series, alas, is over.
Among other things, we highlight the failure of the famous, who was predicted to win in Beijing. The American was only fifth in the short program and sixth in the final classification.
For men, a kind of comeback was succeeded by Canadian Patrick Chan. The winner of the home event was third after the short program in China, 13 points behind local figure skater Jin Boyang. But after the free program three-time champion the world went around both the Chinese and the Israeli, who made mistakes and rolled back from second position to eighth. Chan's score is 279.72 versus Boyan's 278.54.
And the third at the stage was an experienced Russian (243.76), who on Friday showed the fourth result.
Our compatriot for the second time got into the top three of the Chinese Grand Prix after the 2012/13 tournament, when, however, the rentals took place in Shanghai.
Unfortunately, the 29-year-old athlete could not qualify for the series final. At the start of the season, he finished fourth at Skate America.
“Before this start, we did a very good job, tried to correct all the mistakes made in Canada (fifth place. - Gazeta.Ru), and we are very glad that everything worked out for us in Beijing,” Bukin told R-Sport .
- This is our first such high marks, so the joy is huge. For us, this is a really cool result.
Now we will prepare for the Russian Championship, but there is still a lot of work to be done, we need to add more.”
“Alexandra and Ivan were the best, and I don’t understand why no one sees this,” the athlete’s coach complained in an interview. - These are ice dances that imply a relationship between a man and a woman, and what the winners of the Shibutani stage showed is an interpretation of music, a wonderful modern dance, but not a duet, not a relationship between a man and a woman. I already wrote about this in international union skaters. I didn’t have enough Americans and speed in skating.”
China Cup. Russia will be represented at the tournament in three kinds programs. Without Russian participants, competitions of sports couples will remain.
The composition of the Russian team Grand Prix stage in China
Women: Alina Zagitova, Elena Radionova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.
Men: Mikhail Kolyada, Alexander Petrov
Dancing on Ice: Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov, Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureyro.
MEN'S SINGLE SKATE
Mikhail KOLYADA. 22 years old. Coach Valentina Chebotareva. She trains at the Academy of Figure Skating in St. Petersburg. Champion of Russia-2017, bronze medalist of the European Championship-2017.
Mikhail Kolyada began the Olympic season with a tournament in Bratislava, where he skated poorly short program, but got together in the free program, which eventually brought him victory in the competition. In Bratislava, for the first time in a competition, the skater performed cleanly a difficult quadruple lutz jump, which he tried last season.
At the next start in Finnish Espoo "Finland Trophy", the skater was 4th. At the Rostelecom Cup Grand Prix, for the first time in his career, he became a bronze medalist. The Chinese Grand Prix will be the second stage of the series for Mikhail. Recall that during the season, skaters can participate in no more than two stages of the Grand Prix.
The programs of this season were staged by the group's choreographer Olga Klyushnichenko and Stéphane Lambiel.
Alexander PETROV. 18 years. Coach Alexey Mishin. He trains at the Yubileiny sports complex in St. Petersburg. Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship-2016, winner and prize-winner of the junior championships of the country.
Last season, Alexander combined performances at the adult and junior levels. At the Junior World Championships in Taipei, the athlete stopped a step away from the podium and took 4th place. This season Alexander took part in two international competitions. At the tournament in Lombardy, he took 7th place, at the Finland Trophy he was 9th.
The programs of this season were staged by Tatyana Prokofieva, famous dancers Yuri Smekalov, Ramil Mehdiyev helped.
WOMEN'S SINGLES
Alina ZAGITOVA. 15 years. Coaches Eteri Tutberidze, Sergey Dudakov. Trains in Moscow, Sambo-70, Khrustalny skating rink. World champion among juniors, winner of the junior Grand Prix final, champion of Russia among juniors.
After a successful last season in juniors, the skater moved to adult skating and started at the master level. At the beginning of the season, Alina won the Lombardy Trophy tournament. Performance at the Grand Prix in China will be her debut at the stages of the adult series.
The programs for the athlete were put by the choreographer of the group Daniil Gleikhengauz. WITH free program Alina performed to the music of Minkus for the ballet Don Quixote last season. Short - "Black Swan" - on the soundtrack from the film.
Elena RADIONOVA. 18 years. Coach Elena Buyanova. Trains in Moscow, in CSKA. Bronze medalist of the 2015 World Championship, two-time silver medalist European Championship (2025, 2016), champion of Russia (2015), two-time winner of the junior world championship.
The athlete began preparing for the season under the guidance of a new coach, Elena Buyanova. At the tournament in Bratislava, she became a bronze medalist. At the Grand Prix in Moscow, she took 4th place. The Chinese Grand Prix will be the second for Lena this season.
Programs for the figure skater were staged by Canadian choreographer Shi-Lynn Bourne. The short one was left over from last season.
Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA. 20 years. Coach Alexey Mishin. He trains at the SC "Yubileigy" in St. Petersburg. World Champion 2015, European Champion 2015, bronze medalist of the European Championship 2013.
The athlete began this season with performances at international tournament"Lombardy Trophy", where she took 6th place. At the tournament in Finland, she became a bronze medalist.
The programs for the athlete were staged by the choreographer of the group Tatyana Prokofieva and Adam Solya.
DANCING ON ICE
Ekaterina BOBROVA: Dmitry SOLOVIEV. Ekaterina - 27 years old, Dmitry - 29 years old. Coach Alexander Zhulin. They train in Moscow, at the Olimpiysky sports complex. Bronze medalists of the 2013 World Championship, 2013 European champions, silver and bronze medalists of the European Championships, multiple champions of Russia.
The skaters began the season with performances at the Russian Cup stage in Syzran, which they won. Won a victory on international start in Bratislava. At the Moscow Grand Prix "Rostelecom Cup" they took second place. The Beijing stage will be the second for the pair this season.
Short dance - rumba and samba. The famous choreographer Radu Poklitaru staged a new free dance for the athletes.
Tiffany ZAGORSKI - Jonathan GUREIRO. Tiffany is 23 years old, John is 28 years old. Coaches Svetlana Alekseeva, Elena Kustarova, Olga Ryabinina. They train in Moscow, UOR No. 2. At the Russian championships, they took 5th place for three years in a row, the same result was shown last season at their debut Grand Prix stage in Moscow.
Tiffany and Jonathan got together three years ago. Before that, the athletes competed with different partners, and Tiffany skated for France, although she was born in London. In 2015, the athlete received a Russian passport, which allowed her to represent Russia at all major international tournaments. All this time, Zagorski-Gureyro trained under the guidance of Alexander Zhulin, but at the end of last season they decided to work with new coaches. At his first international tournament this season Ice Star in Minsk, Tiffany and John won silver.
Short dance - samba and rumba. The free program was set to the music of the compositions of the Muse group.
Grand Prix Series figure skating comes to an end - four stages out of six are left behind. The first participants of the final have already been determined, but there are still prominent athletes who did not even have time to join the fight. For example, the dance duet Victoria Sinitsyna / Nikita Katsalapov. Due to the operation postponed after the World Cup, Katsalapov could not return to the ice early, by definition. However, the recovery went faster than expected, and the couple managed to show up for an Asian tour that started today in Beijing.
Their groovy swing in a short dance lacked only technical perfection - small discrepancies did not go unnoticed by the judges. In general, the duo's return can be considered successful - 70.24 points became their personal record for international starts.
However, the vice-champions of Russia remained only fourth. Already a very high number of participants gathered in Beijing, where the audience's interest in dancing is very small. Canadians Caitlin Weaver and Andrew Poje dream of returning to the sky and winning the Grand Prix final for the second time in a row. They scored 73.78 points and edged out China's top contenders Maya and Alex Shibutani by 0.55 points. The Americans were prophesied in advance a ticket to Marseille, but now this cannot be said with complete certainty.
Another pair that Sinitsyna and Katsalapov lost to was Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin. Their bold and emotional combination of blues and hip hop was rated 72.09 points, which was a personal best. If at the stage in Canada flaws in support led to fifth place, now the Russian duet has become absolutely the best in the technical part. If the free dance is just as flawless, then third place won't be the limit.
Here it is worth making a small digression and telling that on the same days in Warsaw, at the local tournament of competitive practice, the best Russian duet Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov is being recruited. In Poland, they scored 72.98 points for a short dance - they are in very good shape for the Grand Prix finals and the national championship.
Organizers Chinese stage the competitions of men and couples favor most of all, so the girls took to the ice next. Russia was represented here by two girls who are faced with the task of restoring their former greatness. The most difficult thing now is for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. Not having time to fully recover, she still flew to Beijing with a low temperature. The judges found fault with each element, and as a result, the 2015 world champion received 64.88 points - less than at the unsuccessful stage in Canada.
Interestingly, Tuktamysheva was able to get ahead of the American Ashley Wagner, who unexpectedly started her short program with a failed triple flip. The winner of the stage in the USA came to Beijing to finalize the right to speak in the final, but so far she has not even got on the podium.
Perhaps this is an exaggeration to say that Elena Radionova needs to return lost positions - with silver in Moscow, she dispelled rumors about poor preparation for the season. But there was a time when the absence of compatriots automatically put the 17-year-old Muscovite in first place. In Beijing, however, this is not yet seen. Radionova was under-rotated on the triple sheepskin coat in the cascade (70.75), which is why Canada's Caitlin Osmond (72.20) came out on top. The stage in China showed that her chic scores at home were not more like an advance from the judges - this girl is now the main rival of the Russians, two of whom she is going to win this Saturday.
Men's competitions turned out to be predictable in only one thing - in another failure of the Russians. Maxim Kovtun again, as well as at the stage in the USA, became the tenth in the short program, having received 70.10 points. Alexander Petrov rose one position higher, who still has the opportunity to get close to the top five due to the free program. The oldest of the Russians, Sergei Voronov, turned out to be above everyone else - even with a bad triple loop, he became the fourth.
Surprises concerned the first three. The winner of the Canadian stage, Patrick Chan, arrived in China completely disassembled. A littered triple axel, an unfulfilled double lutz ... By some miracle, he managed to take third place - the three-time world champion received more for the components than for the technique, which can only be explained by the fact that the jury was formed from his personal fan club.
The local favorite Jin Boyang, who was rehabilitated for his failure in the USA, came out on top. His 96.17 for Spider-Man in the short program is third all-time for the season. These scores are second only to Soma Uno from Japan and Javier Hernandez from Spain. And the second, even with a fall on a quadruple sheepskin coat, was another young talent, the reigning world junior champion Daniel Samokhin, representing Israel. It is quite possible that an arbitrary rental will break this not quite logical top three.
For Russians the worst kind programs unexpectedly turned out to be a couple. Only Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov reached the capital of China. Who knows what their level would be if it were not for the partner’s endless injuries, due to which she fails to cleanly perform even the most simplified program. From the very first fall of Kawaguchi on the triple sheepskin coat, it became clear that the pair would not be able to win the stage in China for the second time in a row. The Russians scored 62.90 points - they have never received so little in two years.
An intermediate sixth place will definitely not help to intervene in the distribution of tickets to the Grand Prix final. Just in the competition of couples now the biggest uncertainty about this. According to the results of the short issue, the first three were separated by only 2.5 points. The first were Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao - the change of partners this summer has done them good, and now this duo can make big plans.
Like the Russian Lyubov Ilyushechkina, who has been representing Canada for the third year together with Dylan Moskvich. Again, as in Mississauga, they lost to the Chinese, but the gap again turned out to be purely symbolic. Now there are no experienced compatriots Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford, so the path to the Grand Prix final is open to both pairs if they maintain their positions or even exchange them.
Vladimir Zaivy
One gold and three bronze medals Russian figure skaters won at the fifth stage of the Grand Prix, which ended in Beijing. The most striking was the performance of Elena Radionova, who, having overcome the difficulties of the beginning of the season, demonstrated her readiness to fight for the highest places.
On the way to the preliminary championship of Russia
After the Chinese stage of the Grand Prix, we can unequivocally state: Elena Radionova is in order. Test skates in Sochi in early September, where the student of Inna Goncharenko performed only a short program (and that one was unsuccessful), called into question the readiness of the bronze medalist of the 2015 World Championship for the season. But the figure skater, who then performed against the backdrop of a severe cold, recovered, got in shape, and if at her first Grand Prix in Moscow she skated not quite a percent, then in Beijing it was already close to that. Not a single serious mistake for two programs - and a confident first place.
Skating Radionova, it is worth noting, does not seem very easy. She had to fight for many jumps in China. But this is the case when you understand that this phenomenon is temporary. Elena continues the process of growing up, she has noticeably strengthened and grown, but even if during the transition period she maintains the maximum complexity of her programs, then after that it should become easier to cope with the body. And the fighting character, which the skater shows again and again, will only help her.
Fights with the elements and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - adding every start before our eyes. So far, however, there is no talk of her “signature” triple axel - a student of Alexei Mishin is working to perform a standard technical set without errors. Almost done in China. Summed up only Lutz at the end of the free program. If Tuktamysheva hadn’t doubled him, she could have taken second place and confused the situation with the selection for the Grand Prix finals, while retaining some chances to go there.
And so Tuktamysheva became the third. Thus, after the Chinese tournament, Radionova and Canadian Caitlin Osmond, who took second place in Beijing, secured access to the final. Last week Evgenia Medvedeva won a ticket to Marseille. The remaining three vacancies are really claimed by two Russians - Anna Pogorilaya and Maria Sotskova, who have shown themselves excellently at previous tournaments, and two Japanese women - Wakaba Higuchi and Satoko Miyahara. All of them perform at final stage Grand Prix in Sapporo. The layouts may be different, but there will definitely be enough places on the podium for our skaters to get into the final.
And then the preliminary championship of Russia in women's will be held in Marseille. single skating. Which, in addition to pride in our amazing figure skaters, will also cause sadness - after all, after the New Year, only three will be able to continue the season at the European and world championships. And one of the magnificent four consisting of Medvedeva, Pogorilaya, Radionova and Sotskova will remain superfluous - and there is also Tuktamysheva, and Yulia Lipnitskaya, and Adelina Sotnikova, who temporarily left the show ...
Long-awaited recognition
The second brightest event of the Chinese stage of the Grand Prix is the long-awaited takeoff of Russian dancers Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin. Yes, they did not take first place or even second, but that's not the point. For the first time in their careers, the students of Alexander Svinin and Irina Zhuk overcame the psychological barrier of 70 points in the short dance. Significantly improved personal record in free. And most importantly, they received such marks for the components of the program, which indicate that the judges are ready to perceive them as one of the leading pairs of the Russian team. This recognition is very important.
This rise, of course, did not occur suddenly. Both in the past and the season before last, the 2013 World Junior Champions skated convincingly and, as they say, in an adult way. Everyone saw that Alexandra and Ivan became a real duet. But ice dancing has its own laws, trends and trends - and what seems obvious to some here, looks incredible to others. Now Stepanova and Bukin have made an absolutely clear bid to become the number two couple of the Russian team this season after five-time champions of the country Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov. However, their lead over Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov at the stage in Beijing and the distance advantage over Elena Ilyinykh/Ruslan Zhiganshin, of course, is not at all such that one could talk about the absence of intrigue at the upcoming Russian Championship. The fight will be fierce - and the price of one mistake can be a ticket to the European and world championships. Well, in the finals of the Grand Prix, only Bobrova and Solovyov will perform from the Russians.
A sad song
The third place of Sergey Voronov in the singles competition at the Chinese stage of the Grand Prix is, on the one hand, great. The 29-year-old veteran does not give up, fights, for the second tournament in a row he gives out almost his maximum - and in Beijing this was enough to lose only to Patrick Chan and Jin Boyang and beat everyone else. But if you look at this case from the other side, the absence of stable young Russian single skaters becomes completely indecent. That is, 17-year-old Alexander Petrov, of course, is stable - but without a quadruple jump and with dubious marks for the components, his lot will be the fight for seventh place at the Grand Prix stages and somewhere for 12th at the World Championships if, of course, he goes there.
Well, Maxim Kovtun is a separate song and, alas, a very sad one. “Everything is as usual - no matter how much you work and no matter how you work,” the three-time champion of Russia said in his hearts in “kiss-and-edge” after the failed short program again, after which his coach Inna Goncharenko even asked the student to shut up. But in the free program, Kovtun performs three quadruple jump, two of them are positive. Of the obvious disruptions - only a "butterfly" on the lutz. And what do we see? Components Maxim receives only half a point more than Petrov. And don't say it's unfair. If earlier Kovtun received a good second mark for close to net rentals, now he is mediocre. Because the judges appreciate those who ride more than once.
But the main trouble is that it is still completely unclear who will defend at least two Olympic vouchers at the upcoming World Championships. If we take the most stable ones, then this is this moment Voronov and Petrov, but both above-determined ceilings cannot jump. Kovtun can potentially fight at least with Patrick Chan, but in recent years he has actually managed only one program out of two. There is also the opening of last season, Mikhail Kolyada, but he greatly upset him with his unsuccessful free program at the Moscow Grand Prix. Let's wait for the Japanese stage - maybe Kolyada will please him there.
Time wins
The main result of the competition of sports couples in China was the entry into the final of the Grand Prix of the Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who did not participate in the Beijing stage. The fact is that according to the results of tournaments in the USA and France, the students of Nina Moser secured a ticket to Marseille by 99 percent, but there were still extremely unlikely options that would deprive them of this ticket. Now we can say with confidence that there are no such options anymore.
As for the speech by Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov in Beijing, here one can only repeat the phrase uttered twice Olympic champion Maxim Maxaim Trankov, who commented on the competition on television. “Time is our main rival,” he said, and this is the case. Veterans of the Russian pair skating this season, circumstances again overcame - in this case, the partner's serious injury in January, they returned to the sport, but they still cannot get in shape that would allow them to fight in the leading positions.
Beijing
China Cup
Women
1. Elena Radionova (Russia) - 205.90
2. Caitlin Osmond (Canada) - 196.00
3. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (Russia) - 192.57
Men
1. Patrick Chan (Canada) - 279.72
2. Jin Boyang (China) - 278.54
3. Sergey Voronov (Russia) - 243.76
…6. Alexander Petrov (Russia) - 228.44
7. Maxim Kovtun (Russia) - 221.43
Dancing on Ice
1. Maya Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (USA) - 185.13
2. Caitlin Weaver / Andrew Poje (Canada) - 181.54
3. Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin (Russia) - 177.41
4. Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov (Russia) - 171.94
1. Yu Xiaoyu / Zhang Hao (China) - 203.76
2. Peng Chen / Jin Yang (China) - 197.96
3. Lyubov Ilyushechkina / Dylan Moskovich (Canada) - 191.54
…6. Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov (Russia) - 175.53
