I know that's nothing like this AT ALL but I do wonder. When I was in high school I took the ACT three times (was actually scheduled for a 4th but decided to stop the madness).
There was a certain score I was looking for. The third time, I think my second section was the reading comprehension. And I completely KILLED it, and I KNEW it! When you're taking a 4 hour exam you have to be completely stoic and deliberate.
But I thought to myself, OMG I'm finally gonna do it!
So yeah. I ended up getting a perfect score (36) on that section just like I knew. But the math section which was right afterward was my lowest of the three times I took the test because my moment of joy broke the concentration needed to then do my best on my most difficult subject.
In the end, I got the same total exam score, for a third time which was short of my pretty extreme goal.
I wonder if Ilia knew, especially with all of the mistakes made by the others evidenced by their scores, that he HAD this. Like easy peasy. And despite himself, in his mind maybe allowed himself to celebrate early ? It seems like with these sports all it takes is a tiny lapse in mindfulness to screw everything up.