2019 Rostelecom Cup

Ladies’ Free Skate

Russia’s Alexandra Trusova pocketed her second consecutive Grand Prix (GP) gold in the Ladies’ event in Moscow on Saturday, solidifying a spot for the Grand Prix Final later next month. Teammate Evgenia Medvedeva slipped to second for the silver, while USA’s Mariah Bell will take home her second GP bronze this season.

In her technically-packed routine to music from Game of Thrones, 15-year-old Trusova underrotated and fell on her opening quad Salchow, as well as a triple Lutz-triple Salchow later in the program, but otherwise landed a quad Lutz, quad toe-triple toe and quad toe-Euler-triple Salchow. The jumps alone racked up oodles of points, including the positive grades of execution (GOE) she earned on her level 4 spins and footwork. While not her personal best, the 2019 World Junior champion’s score of 160.26 was more than enough to take first place in the free skate and win the event overall with 234.47 points.

“I am very happy to have won my second Grand Prix event and to have qualified for the Grand Prix Final,” said the 2019 Skate Canada Champion. “However, I made some mistakes in short and free program and I’ll continue to work to skate two clean programs next time.”

“I would like to compete with the men, because they can do a quad in the short program and we are not allowed to,” she added. “Also, it would be interesting to compete with skaters that do many quads in the programs.”

Fellow countrywoman Medvedeva was near-perfect in her mesmerizing routine to Memoirs of a Geisha which featured six solid triple jumps. The only mistake was an edge call on her opening triple Lutz. The 2019 World bronze medalist showed very good spins, two of which were level 4, as well as superb level 4 footwork which the judges awarded with many positive GOEs. The skater, who turns 20 in three days, earned a new season’s best of 148.83 for second place in the free skate and overall (225.76).

“I am very satisfied with what I did today and yesterday, finally I did what I should do,” the Olympic silver medalist noted. “It is in my plan to learn a quad. I am working on the quad Salchow, but at the same time, I need to make sure I stay healthy. I’ll do everything I can for it and I hope to put it out there as soon as possible.”

Performing to “Hallelujah” by k.d. lang, Bell hung on to the landing a of triple flip-triple toe and received an edge on both of her triple Lutzes, but was otherwise clean. The 2019 Internationaux de France bronze medalist also showed strong spins and footwork and finished a strong third in the free skate with 138.56, securing her third spot overall (205.67).

“There are some little errors, but I can go back and work on those for whatever is next,” said the 23-year-old. “I just wanna keep putting out my best performances. As I continue to train better, I can expect to compete better. It was really funny to skate after Evgenia, the crowd was really hyped!”

“I think I just have to bee consistent,” she added. “I don’t have limits and I don’t think why I couldn’t (learn a quad or triple Axel). We do work on some Axel exercises and I have tried a few triple Axels. Ladies skating is really moving forward. It’s super cool to be included in that. There is a lot to be said about technical elements, but there is a lot to be said about good skating as well. To have a good balance of that is, I think, what you really need.”

Satoko Miyahara of Japan earned the second highest program component scores of the Ladies’ free skate with her routine to Schindler’s List which featured strong level 4 spins and footwork. However, the 2019 Cup of China silver medalist underrotated five jumps to finish fourth (129.33) in the free skate. With a total score of 192.42, the 21-year-old was able to move up from sixth to fourth overall.

“I got so many downgrades, but I think I did my best today,” said the 2019 U.S. International Classic gold medalist. “The second part of my free skate was better than at GP China. There’s more space to improve myself, because in practice, I could do a better performance.”

Azerbaijan’s Ekaterina Ryabova placed fifth overall (187.77), followed by Japan’s Yuhana Yokoi (182.68) and Alexia Paganini of Switzerland (179.69).