Anna Shcherbakova won in Sochi, Dar'ya Usachyova - Silver medalist, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva - Bronze
European Championships medalist Anna Shcherbakova became the winner of the third stage of the Russian Cup in Sochi, junior World Championship medalist Dar'ya Usachyova won Silver, World and European champion Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva - Bronze.
Commenting on the performances of Anna Shcherbakova and Dar'ya Usacheva, the coach of the Eteri Tutberidze group -
Daniil Gleikhengauz said:
" The performances in Sochi were not perfect. Dasha skated very well in the short program, but made a mistake in the free program. As for Anya, in the short program we were very disappointed with the result. The cascade and not a quadruple jump had to be done, so Anya herself was so upset yesterday, after realising this. Today from the positive side: the first half of the free program was healthy with the set Anya showed. The quadruple flip is excellent for a big plus. In the second half, there were rough edges and small mistakes. But so far this is not the peak of form and there is still a lot of work ...
This all comes from a lack of competition. Because for girls this is only the second start. An athlete feels differently in both body and emotions when skating in training and in competitions. When you have a difficult jump, there is a huge surge of adrenaline, and due to this, the body begins to work in a different way, you can not control some moments, explained Daniil.
The quadruple flip, with which
Anna Shcherbakova opened the program, turned out to be great in the free program, for a bonus.
Asking after the reason for this metamorphosis, Anya admitted that she had reconfigured herself: she jumped confidently in training and warm-up with a quadruple Flip. Two spins from her skating run were also performed for bonuses. And only the triple combination Lutz was left without a Rittberger. Anya then added a triple Toeloop to the Lutz at the end of her program, but this jump was not counted.
" Today I set myself up so: no matter what happens, I will go out and try to do my best, I will not allow myself to get upset, because in any case, if I did it this way, this is a reason to correct mistakes in training, and not to get upset at competitions. I was very much in the mood for a quad Flip. Since the last start, there have been advances in training, we even tried to complicate the program. But we decided to skate the same set at this start. Here I had the task of being confident in this jump and I coped with it. This is the only thing that allows me not to get upset today. All quadruple flips I managed both on the 6-minute rollout and at the skating run. This is a big plus. But, of course, I am upset about what happened later in the program. There was a mistake in a very unexpected place, on the spiral, after which I was a little confused. I jumped a cascade that one shouldn't jump. And in this part I am dissatisfied with myself, " said Anna.
Anna Shcherbakova scored 162.44 points for the free and 239.91 points in the sum of two programs confidently, outstripping her rivals. This is the second victory of the figure skater at the stages of the National Cup. Shcherbakova excelled at the first cup tournament in Syzran with a margin of 40 points from second place.
Another ward of Eteri Tutberidze,
Dar'ya Usachyova (225.19), who was in the lead after the short program, confidently started the free program. She did everything, but at the end did not tighten the triple toe loop in a cascade with a triple flip.
" I am unhappy with today's skating run, because I made a gross mistake - I fell from the cascade. Of course, this is unforgivable. It means that we must continue to work. Before the test skates, I said that I really like the new program. I begin to understand it more, to get used to the image of Juliet. Now you need to dash off the program so that all the elements are performed cleanly, and emotions are transferred, " said Dar'ya.
Alexey Nikolaevich Mishin's student, the experienced
Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva (213.26) had a chance to rise above the third place, which she occupied after the short program. Lisa perfectly and easily made a complex triple Axel, a cascade of the triple Lutz - tripe Toeloop, and then everything went according to an unplanned scenario, and Liza lost points due to her mistakes.
" It seemed to me that I concentrated very strongly on the first two elements. I thought it was the most important thing, and then everything will go fine, by experience. I lost my vigilance a little, but this should not happen. It turned out into these stupid, I think, mistakes for me. But this is the first start after a long break. The program has not yet been rolled out as we would like. Therefore, we need to work harder and work harder to avoid such minor mistakes, " said Lisa.
Liza recalled that they staged this program with Yuri Smekalov on Zoom during quarantine.
" It was a new experience. I think not only for me. I really like the program itself. It seems to me that in this new program I am new 'myself'. We worked hard on the choreography. Perhaps this is why the program is not broken in that way, because we spend a lot of time on changing hands, making clearer movements. It's not so easy to stage for a person who has been skating for almost 20 years, these kind of absolute
things that are not standard for her. We focused on changing the image. And now we need to work, because today's skating run was no good. By the next stage, I will already be in better shape, " added Lisa.
The fourth place in Sochi was taken by
Sof'ya Samodurova (193.05), the fifth -
Anastasiya Gulyakova (186.44).
European champion Sof'ya Samoderova had the first presentation of her new free program at a competition of this level. During the Open Test Skates, Sonya got a fever, and she was forced to withdraw on doctor's recommendation.
In Sochi, Sonya coped with her debut, did everything except the double Axel - Euler - triple Salchow cascade.
" I cannot say that I am satisfied. There were two rather gross mistakes. Step out in the short and on my "dupel" in the free. For me, a double Axel is the easiest and most confident jump, so I did not understand my mistake. Okay, I'll work. In fact, I really missed competitions ... I can't even speak ... Before the stage we had a training camp in Novogorsk, I was well prepared ..."
Sonya could not hold back her tears:
" I'm not crying because I was upset, it's just that I haven't had such sensations for a long time, adrenaline ... I really missed this. For many girls this is the second start, I have only the first, long-awaited one. But for the first time it's okay, " assured Sonya, saying that it will be better in the next start.