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.
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.