Kovtun leaves Buyanova, goes to Goncharenko

Tutto said:

I didn't mean it was anyone's fault really but consider this: Kovtun goes into Worlds in Boston as the Russian No 1, he skates in the final group in the sp. His sp wasn't that bad really he just makes that typical for him mistake of tripling the quad & losing the element and he plunges to the 13th place whereas his teammate Kolyada skates a perfect sp in the first group and propellers himself unexpectedly into 6th to skate the lp in the final group so their positions sort of get reversed. I don't know of course what was going through Kovtun's mind but I can imagine this situation WAS a serious shock to him. Kolyada was hot on his heels all the season but that was the first time Kolyada overtook him in most spectacular fashion. If Kovtun was a fighter by nature he would use it as an extra motivation to come back in the LP (as in fairness he did many a time in the similar scenario ie after a bad sp) instead he completely bombed. To 'finish him off', Kolyada ends in the 4th only 3 points from the bronze, stealing all the spotlight. Psychophysically it must have been a hard pill to swallow for a spoilt rotten, golden boy of TSKA.

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Furthermore considering :- Kovtun was barely able to overcome Pitkeev in a Challenger series competition at the beginning of season,
- Pitkeev and Kolyad competed fairly well at Rostelecom Cup, again risking to win,
- Kovtun won Nationals by a very small margin,
- he performed badly at Euros, while Kokyada and Petrov, him with no quadruple, skated much better, ensuring three spots for Russia next year
- Kolyada and Petrov are from St. Petersbug, not Moscow, and that is a thing which counts at least since after WWIi.
However I think Buyanova was and is still to concentrate on Sotnikova to work well with him and have him work hard.
There's a video, made just before Worlds, in which she is working with her, not with him, and he was him going to Worlds, not Adelina.

rosy14 said:

Furthermore considering :- Kovtun was barely able to overcome Pitkeev in a Challenger series competition at the beginning of season,
- Pitkeev and Kolyad competed fairly well at Rostelecom Cup, again risking to win,
- Kovtun won Nationals by a very small margin,

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Well, he didn't so much win as "win" - was dragged into first place by outlandishly high PCS. I am not sure how adequate an idea Kovtun has about his abilities in this area after being overscored for so long, but even he must have realised 93 was ridiculous.

rosy14 said:

- he performed badly at Euros, while Kokyada and Petrov, him with no quadruple, skated much better, ensuring three spots for Russia next year

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I woudn't say Kolyada skated much better, considering that he had problems with two out of three jump passes in the SP and ended up 9th. He did very well in the FS, but hardly overall. And Kovtun was two places ahead in the end. Petrov - yes, he's stable, but hardly a threat with no quad. Although it was an exceptionally rather than a typically bad short program for Kolyada, so Kovtun must have realised that Kolyada might just do better than that at Worlds. Kovtun basically gave it away himself, beating him after he lost an element wasn't exactly an insurmountable task. Kolyada isn't a paragon of stability but he doesn't unravel in the way Kovtun does. I think the bottom line is that Kovtun can't afford to do whatever and still remain number one any more. That must be gnawing at him, although considering all the other psychological issues he already has it's hard to say what net effect it will have. And I don't think his position as number one is in immediate danger, the Russian Fed doesn't change leaders at a drop of a hat. He has at least another season to prove himself (and hope that others don't).

^ Not to be forgotten that Kovtun & Kolyada were training together for 2 weeks in USA prior to Worlds so they had enough time to take a measure of each other' abilities. I wonder how they get on a personal level...
Also I wonder was it a genuine reason for Kovtun to pull out of the TCC (an ear infection was cited iirc) or he just knew that he was out of shape completely and decided to spare himself further embarrassment (if so I wish he had made his mind quicker than giving 3 days to Kolyada to prepare)

Tutto said:

^ Not to be forgotten that Kovtun & Kolyada were training together for 2 weeks in USA prior to Worlds so they had enough time to take a measure of each other' abilities. I wonder how they get on a personal level...
Also I wonder was it a genuine reason for Kovtun to pull out of the TCC (an ear infection was cited iirc) or he just knew that he was out of shape completely and decided to spare himself further embarrassment (if so I wish he had made his mind quicker than giving 3 days to Kolyada to prepare)

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I don't believe that. He really wanted to go...besides, prior to the ear infection he had injured his hand, so if he was going to use an excuse, he could have just used that one. And it's not like the other European men were in their best form either.

karne said:

Yes, obviously it's not the RuFed's fault, after they strung him up, pilloried him, and hung him out to dry. No, that had nothing to do with it.

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Are you implying that it was criticism after the 2012 Worlds that caused him to perform unsuccessfully for the following 4 seasons? I personally don’t believe it at all, but if it were the case, people with such fragile psyches would never survive in big sports.

karne said:

2013-2014 Russian Nationals results:
1. Plushenko
2. Voronov
3. Menshov
4. Gachinski
5. Kovtun
And the RuFed had the HIDE to claim they were trying to go for youth. Artur is just one year older than Kovtun!

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Well, as I said after the pre-Olympics season Russian men were sent to Championships based on merit, while that year they sent Kovtun out of desperation, because he’d won his Jr. GP assignments and Jr. GPF, and they thought he was the next big thing.
And let’s face it: there was no case for sending Gachinsky either. He was 4th at Nationals, with only 2 spots on the World team, and he’d finished 7th and 9th at his GP events that season.

karne said:

How many people remember that there were TWO men at Nice in 2012? Who can actually name who the second one was? Hardly anyone, because all the focus afterwards was on smashing Artur to pieces and ignoring that Voronov also failed in his job.

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They’d had far more hopes for Gachinsky than Voronov who’d missed the team the previous season and placed 13th and 14th at Worlds before that.

karne said:

So no, I ain't buying any of this "poor Kovtun" horse manure.

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I’m not buying it either, but nor am I’m buying the poor Gachinsky “horse manure,” as you put it, but I think on that latter point we’d have to agree to disagree.

How many times does this Gachinsky stuff have to be rehashed? Voronov and Menshov have both been screwed over by the Russian fed too...and I am certain none of these men sit around moping and whining about it years after the fact. What is the point? It's over with, done, finito. Life isn't fair. Move on already. Artur chose not to keep skating so it makes even less sense to keep beating that dead horse. He doesn't have the competitive drive that some others do, and there is nothing wrong with that. If he finds satisfaction skating in shows now, then just let him live his life. He will always have a World medal which is more than most skaters ever get to say.

Kovtun is an excellent athlete and it's due to his athleticism that he can muscle out the quads. However, his jump technique is awful and he is never going to be consistent with the way he contorts his body on the take off. If he hasn't burned the bridge already, I'd suggest working with Kudryavtsev to relearn his technique.

Abraxis12345 said:

Kovtun is an excellent athlete and it's due to his athleticism that he can muscle out the quads. However, his jump technique is awful and he is never going to be consistent with the way he contorts his body on the take off. If he hasn't burned the bridge already, I'd suggest working with Kudryavtsev to relearn his technique.

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Is his jump technique originally by Kudryavtsev? I doubt so. If so it means starting from the scratch - has he really got time for that?
Kudryavtsev did wonders for Anna P correcting her technique (according to some Russian poster they were working the whole last season, first on her spins - and that was evident by the Euros, and then on the jumps specifically on her landings - and we saw the result in Boston.
But Anna was taught his technique from the start, just needed some polishing touches. With Kovtun it could be different.

BTW I see it's been discussed on Russian boards that his SP to be changed and that Goncharenko's already benefited from his transfer by getting more ice time.

Tutto said:

BTW I see it's been discussed on Russian boards that his SP to be changed and that Goncharenko's already benefited from his transfer by getting more ice time.

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And also that Kovtun now has a choreo class every day and has to work longer hours overall.
But seriously, Kovtun has been getting more ice time than just about anyone for years (especially compared to St. Petersburg), why are we not seeing the results?

It appears that Kovtun's transfer hasn't been finalised because he didn't apply or maybe didn't apply in time. Is it just a formality or he really would have to go back to Buyanova? Anyone could clarify please
Or maybe he's already had enough with Goncharenko?

According to his IG he's recovering in Cyprus from his hard ballet lessons... Bless. :cool14: I still love the guy, hope he comes back determined to put last season firmly behind him.