Okay, short and messy write up about the test skates:
Shorts:
Mozalev mozaleving, Samarin with obligatory fall but rockin', ordinary Tango program doesn't seem the best choice for Vetlugin, Gumennik is left without a new short, Lutfullin lightfooted dancer with generic program, Kondratiuk I didn't see, Fedorov with a terrible program, Semenenko very strong with a great program and a very literal clown on his shirt, Ignatov has one of his off-days, Kovalev surprisingly strong but program not my taste, Yablokov's suspenders try to ruin everything again, Aliev's shirt is very transparent and it bothers me.
Frees:
Fedorov with a much better but very weird program, not sure if he's just overwhelmed by everything. Baila morena okay, cheesy guilty pleasure, but what does it have to do with anything? The first song was nice though. Jumps terrible, impressive how he continued on and still delivered performancewise afterwards.
Gumennik: I liked the program much more than I would have thought, the choreo is quite intriguing in a quiet way and he interpreted the whole time, really very nice. What was up with his spins, though? And why doesn't he look like Dorian Gray but like a vampire?
Yablokov with certain jumping issues, but very strong in performance with an entertaining program which he can now show in the best light.
Vetlugin for me the new Kolyada in terms of skating, wonderful to watch, but I don't like the program much and the outfit, nope.
Semenenko very secure in jumping, except for a 4Lo which I think will be critical in his hunt for the title. Program not too bad but could be better, very Richaud with voice overs and mid-program stand still, nice outfit
Ignatov with a mostly-on-day but fading in the second half again, looking much better than his photo again, program consists mostly of two footed skating
Lutfullin with a very light, soft program (and lovely shirt), almost really beautiful, but ambitious jump layout and jumps not there today and why did they have to destroy everything with the two late music cuts and why does he almost strangle himself in the end, that's not necessary
Mozalev mozaleving again and although I like My Body is a Cage myself a lot I'm starting to think he needs a therapist. love the step sequence
Samarin goes full Samarin again with robot-program, Samarin-costume, obligatory fall, embracing his body stiffness and entertainer personality and selling the most out of his robot program. Both of his performances give the impression he's found his niche, doesn't want to change anymore, just loves what he's doing at this point and not feeling the pressure but just enjoying he's still there and performing for the crowd
so weird to see Kondratiuk doing the ode to joy, he's ignoring the trivia, program rather conservative for his standards, but his jumping looks like he's going to be a very strong contender
Kovalev in shiny but not exactly new costume has a program that has a very warhorsey feeling to it, but he fills the pathos well with his impressive (by single male skaters standards) stature
Aliev again not with a great outfit, but that's okay since he delivered the best entry dance. The program is a bore, but Aliev moves still smooth like melting butter.
Why are they all running so much on the ice this season, where are they running?
Costume rating: 1 Lutfullin's free, 2 Semenenko's free, 3 Ignatov's free
Program rating: 1 Mozalev's free, 2 Semenenko's short, 3 Gummenik's free
Everything else, who's the best male skater in the country, seems impossible to say at this point. Kondratiuk seems very strong again, though.
even if I'm calling some a bore and such, but that's just because I'm a critical, subjective, grumpy person who's always looking for faults. Real efforts were made, there's not much truely generic stuff.
who also looks like he'll be very strong again and justified the constancy talks again. Those 3 are the ones my instincts would bet on... but Yablokov looks like a wild card who could easily rise to top as well, and Aliev basically just needs to hit all his jumps... which doesn't seem very likely but very possible. Those are my very amateur impressions.
