Gleikhengauz and Shcherbakova have been interviewed by TASS in Sochi. But no complete transcript so far has surfaced. This is what I've patched together so far.
Gleikhengauz:
“ Our athletes assess their strengths quite adequately themselves, and if they manage to skate nine or ten out of ten in training, they do not hesitate to go to the start. If there are mistakes in training, they understand this. Anya’s training was not perfect, and we understood that errors were possible, and, unfortunately, it went exactly along this path. "
" The Lutz-Rittberger cascade requires not only the ability to perform it, but also the right attitude, full of self-confidence. This is a huge difference. And any professional athlete who does this cascade with both a Toeloop and a Rittberger will say - there is a huge difference. For me, this minimal difference in the values of these jumps, only a single point, it is not justified. "
“ It is much more difficult to 'catch' the Rittberger as the second element, since if you hesitate, you won’t pick it up. This is what happened - Anya lost momentum when landing on the toepick, and was no longer able to get out of there to the height to make a triple, ” the coach explained.
The athlete planned to perform two quadruple jumps in her free program in Sochi, but the coaches decided not to risk it prematurely.
“ We planned to do two quads - we ran the program through with a Lutz and a Flip, but it was still too risky. All athletes have this - if your first quadruple jump is good, you go for the difficulty, and if you make a mistake on the first, there are very few chances on the second. So far we have limited ourselves to one, but our goal is to approach the Grand Prix with two, and the Russian Championship - with two or three quads. "
After her mistake in the short program, Shcherbakova found it difficult to cope with her emotions, but the coaches helped as best they could.
" I talked to her yesterday, when she got off the ice, and today in training me and Sergey Viktorovich (Dudakov) no longer focused on this, but tried to cheer her up, give her confidence in her abilities, ” Gleikhengauz emphasized.
" I thought we did it, but there is still a lot of work. Adrenaline hits the muscles hard after such jumps as triple Axel or quadruple jumps - the athletes exhale a little, and this prevents them from continuing to skate their programs through, but this is practiced in training. And at the starts it is different, there is even more adrenaline. "
" Today (in the free program) she (Dar'ya Usachyova) had a technical mistake on her Toeloop cascade - it was unexpected, because the landing from the first jump was good. We'll figure it out, but in general she showed herself very worthy in her first two competitions. She is stress-resistant, maybe skate to the maximum she is capable of ", - said Gleikhengauz.
Commenting on the state of the triple Axel, which Usacheva began to learn, Gleikhengauz said.
" It is still in the process, it has a good height, but so far there are not enough rotations - even if she almost leaves it, there are still under-rotations. First we need to screw it up, then we will talk about exiting from it, and then we insert it into the programs. The main thing is that she trains it, and those who train it succeed. "
" We continue to work on the programs of Valiyeva, especially on her free program - so that there are no misfires, like at the stage of the Russian Cup in Moscow. Pah-pah-pah, we like now how she skates - she trains every day, sometimes she does the triple Axel into triple Toeloop, but it is too early to tell that we will insert this into the programs. But this season it is necessary to do it," said Gleichengauz.
At the Moscow stage of the Russian Cup, Valieva made a number of mistakes in the free program, including falling twice. Coming off the ice, the athlete showed the trainers her boot.
"Shoelaces? She also told us. An athlete must never find a problem in himself - this is a natural process, " said Gleikhengauz.
Shcherbakova:
" There were difficulties, without those you cannot be. After returned from Syzran at first there was some kind of burst of energy, I was already trying to skate out a program with two quads. Then there were minor problems ... I got sick, I went back, recovered. It was not serious, but still it confused my preparation a little. "
" I spent more time on quadruple jumps during this time, restored them. In principle, there is progress, and I think it can be seen that this time I jumped the Flip more confidently. The Lutz has already been recovered in training, there were good attempts. "
" I think we will slowly recover. I hope nothing will interrupt training anymore. Although now, upon arrival, I will need to break in new skates. "
The skater noted that she has to start in time with the preparation of her skates for the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix, which will be held from 20 to 22 November. “ I have no options, I have to ” she said.
" Probably, these are the thoughts that interfere with skating, ” Shcherbakova answered when asked about the increased attention to herself and the increased status. " So I try to cope with it, skate just like I did before. I crossed paths with all the girls at the Open Test Skates, and our purely human relations remained the same, it was very pleasant to remember these, let's say, old feelings in the locker room. "
" We chatted calmly, and this, perhaps, was not even enough, last year we went to all the competitions together, and some kind of atmosphere developed. And it became even calmer, probably. In Syzran I competed alone - I somehow lost the habit of this, I was tense, all by myself. You must somehow be able to separate: one part - friendly relations, another part - competitions, where everyone is for himself. "
" I don’t know what to expect from it,” Shcherbakova said in response to a question about expectations from the season.
" I really hope that there will be major starts, especially the World Championship. This is probably my main dream for this season - for it to take place. On my part, I will simply do my best to perform well at the Russian Championship, improve myself and always be satisfied after my skating runs, otherwise I really did not like this feeling after the short program, where in an interview I had to tell something after a bad skate, after the good ones these are much nicer. "
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I'll try to interpret the interview here:
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/anna-shcherbakova.60308/post-2656551 , the video with Anna is of the usual quality, she is very talkative and answers all questions to their fullest.
And that means that probably Talalaykina and even Molchanova are through to Nationals.
). Anything can still happen.
