Trusova, Shcherbakova and Kostornaya complicated their programs. But Zagitova - not yet: she is not risking quadruples and is inferior to them in content
Caution, now there will be a spoiler about the female figure skating season of 2019/20 - if you do not want to know its plot ahead of time, just skip the next paragraph.
We are at the start of the season of uninhibited domination by Eteri Tutberidze's figure skaters. But this, of course, is not news, even for those who have already have read ahead.
A short synopsis for new readers about today's figure skating: this is the first senior season for Aleksandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova and Alyona Kostornaya. A year ago, they performed only among juniors (even in the senior Championship of Russia, but this does not count), and now they are accelerating figure skating to an incredible level.
The three of them haven'tt lost a single start: 5 victories in 5 tournaments. Shcherbakova won at Skate America, Trusova took the Canadian Grand Prix stage - this is if we discard the pre-season challenge. Ahead of the French Grand Prix - with Kostornaya (and, of course, Alina Zagitova) in the lead roles.
The fact that Trusova, Shcherbakova and Kostornaya jumped into the top of women's skating on the move was obvious last season, when they took turns winning the main tournaments of the year: Trusova - in JWC, KostornayaJGP, and Shcherbakova in the senior Championships of Russia.
A few more details from last season:
• Trusova’s sum achieved in JWC 2019 (222.89 - the world junior record) would be included in the top 5 senior results of the 2018/19 season, if in junior programs, as in seniors, the choreographic sequence would counted as a 12th element;
• in their free programs in JWC 2019, Trusova and Shcherbakova gathered fantastic technical bases (78.71 and 70.01) - more than any figure skater from the senior World Championships of 2019. There, the most difficult set (68.75) was performed by Japanese Riki Kihira with two triksels;
• Kostornaya, even without ultra-si jumps, had 62.23 base points in her free program for content - only 2.71 less than world champion Alina Zagitova, but higher than European champion Sof'ya Samodurova.
If you look for a conclusion in these figures, this is obvious: Trusova, Shcherbakova, and Kostornaya had enough potential with their junior set of elements for a top debut in the senior ranks. Even if the'd kept it they would be the favourites of the season.
But for Tutberidze, the transition of three of her pupils to seniors became an occasion to immediately present their unique capabilities.
The programs of Trusova, Shcherbakova and Kostornaya in the off-season went through the maximum upgrade - now their complexity, which already was off the scale, is now beyond the standard capabilities of ordinary skaters.
Graphic
The focus of the Eteri team was on free skating programs - and this is logical. In the short, base values of Trusova and Shcherbakova (33.78) are close to the ceiling for skaters not jumping the triple axel.
With Kostornaya this amount is slightly lower (32.95) - due to the less valuable cascade of Flip - Toeloop, but with the triple Axel there is the prospect of an extra 4.7 points.
But first things first.
Trusova jumps 4 quadruples in her free program - the first ever in women's skating
Last season, Aleksandra Trusova performed her program three times with three quads - at the Grand Prix stage in Kaunas (under rotation on the Lutz, fall on the Toeloop), the Junior World Cup (fall on the Lutz) and in the JGP Final (both Lutz's had big deductions).
In just 2 junior seasons, Trusova performed 17 quads in 9 attempts - more than half - fails. Agree, alarming statistics before her debut.
But Tutberidze introduced another quad, the Salchow, to this 'Game of Thrones'. Trusova in her first junior season, succeeded in only one out of three. Risky, but right now was best time for trying.
In general, to complicate Trusova's program is a maximum level challenge. It's one thing to grow when you have a base of 50 points; the other is to improve from a sky-high 85.
Formally, the quadruple Salchow in the program of Sasha took the place of the triple Flip - the remaining elements were preserved only by changing their combination. The solo triple Lutz at the end of the program was dropped, and instead of it a quad Toeloop in cascade appeared (also a bonus one) - this is an additional half point compared to last year.
“I can do a quadruple flip, but due to the fact that I already do a lot of quadruple jumps, it is still unstable. I’ll train it and maybe I’ll put it in the program someday. Now I'm still learning the triple Axel”, so the next challenge for Trusova and Tutberidze has already been outlined.
And, perhaps, we will learn about its successful implementation soon.
Kostornaya - the only Tutberidze figure skater with a triple Axel
The element was premiered 2 weeks ago at the Finlandia Trophy - Alyona Kostornaya had been preparing for it for more than two years. Of the two planned axels, only the on in cascade turned out to be clean - on the solo, the judges saw an under rotation.
Perhaps a triksel is even more profitable than a quad (although it is valued lower by 1.5-3.5) - it (unlike quadruples) can be inserted into a short program. Alyona has already planned this at the French Grand Prix - potentially this is a advantage of 4.7 points over the rest after the first day.
The appearance of triple Axels has brought about global changes to Alyona's free program:
1) of last year’s elements, only the double Axel, the triple Rittberger and the cascade of Flip - Toeloop remained intact;
2) one of the double Axels was discarded - in this set it simply turned out to be superfluous;
3) in cascades Alyona now jumps only once the double and triple Toeloop;
4) a supernova cascade of triple Flip - Euler - Salchow appeared - the most valuable in Kostornaya's program;
5) the triple Lutz was turned from a cascade into a solo jump was moved to the end of he program instead of a Flip.
All this strengthened last year's base by 7.92 points: Alyona is now the third skater in the world in terms of the complexity of the free program.
Shcherbakova now has the most difficult cascade in women's skating
The quadruple Lutz - triple Toeloop is an asset that no one in the world has. Another new product from Eteri, who works full force towards reinforcements, with serious risks - until the senior Grand Prix, 4 attempts at the quadruple Lutz out of 6 for Anna Shcherbakova ended in failure.
In fact, replacing a triple Flip with a second quadruple Lutz is the change in Shcherbakova’s set of jumping content. But there were also a couple of cosmetic ones - the Rittberger has shifted to a cascade with the Lutz (0.07 additional points for execution in the bonus zone), and instead of a layback spin, a jump into camel spin.
Shcherbakova’s technical base grew by 6.77 points, and last year’s backlog from Trusova in technique decreased from 11 to 9 points.
And Alina?
Zagitova's best content mark from the past is 64.94, and this is the ceiling for a program without ultra-si elements. It is clear that against a base value of 80 she is almost without options - even with dozens of components.
In addition, her Cleopatra, compared to last year's Carmen, lost another half point due to the movement of the Lutz-Rittberger cascade to the beginning of the program - a signal that for Alina, quality of execution is now more important than increasing her base value.
The complication of Zagitova's programs is not a new topic. A year ago, Eteri explained a lot: “We tried to work on the quads. We did this a year before the Olympics, but then quitted, because every jump is a risk. Even if an athlete knows how to do them, it is still a risk. When we've been close we would continue to work on it. But now Alina has grown, physiological changes have occurred, so we are not dealing with quadruples.”
True, at the end of the year, a training video with Alina training a quadruple flip on the fishing rod and harness circled around the world.
But before the start of the 2019/20 season, Alina abandoned her plans to strengthen her content.
“Will I complicate the program? This season, no, ” her clear answer immediately after the September Open Test Skates. Zagitova arrived at the French stage with the same content.
But perhaps Grenoble will inspire Alina and Eteri to progress. They know better than anyone that figure skating is now indispensable without improved technical content.
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https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/allresp/2622589.html
Some other blog postings you can view and interpret for yourself:
The trainers made Zagitova laugh after her skating: a cute gesture with pillows-hearts: https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/figureice/2623528.html
“Why am I even straining myself?!” Alyona Kostornaya’s emotions after an deducted jump: https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/allresp/2623501.html
. That was a great podium, I like Mariah a lot and she was great. I hope I will see Kaori too next time on the podium.
