Ignatov surprises at Russian Nationals

[gsk8]

Makar Ignatov took a surprising narrow lead in the Men’s Short Program as the Russian National Championships opened Thursday in Krasnoyarsk. Juniors Andrei Mozalev and Petr Gumennik placed second and third, but the top men are virtually tied at 88-point range. Favorites Dmitri Aliev and Alexander Samarin made errors and will need to show good Free Skates in order to catch up on Friday.

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[Mishaminion]

Samarin and Aliev

Get it together boys...

But well done to Ignatov, Mozalev and Gumennik on top 3 in SP.

 

[ice coverage]

... Favorites Dmitri Aliev and Alexander Samarin made errors and will need to show good Free Skates in order to catch up on Friday. ...

True, but Aliev in fourth is only 1.53 points behind Ignatov in first.

Whereas Samarin in eighth is over eight points behind Ignatov, and has a lot more ground to make up than Aliev.

I get that it is notable that two of the top three are juniors (and congratulations to them and to Ignatov ), but it does not seem fair to me to lump Aliev in with Samarin.

Good luck to all in the FS.

 

[Tolstoj]

Samarin and Aliev

Get it together boys...

But well done to Ignatov, Mozalev and Gumennik on top 3 in SP.

Aliev did well enough, he's still in there.

Samarin and few others were saved by the judges, the gap in scores could have been bigger.

Gumennik was my surprise at Nationals: i knew he was capable of skating a program with those elements, but after GPF there were some concerns on his consistency, great to see him back.

Ignatov, we've seen him landing those quads all season, i'm not that surprised, hope he can stays on his feet in the free, thinking about doing his job rather than the placement.