2025-26 Russian Grand Prix - Stage 4 - Moscow

[elektra blue]

fun end of the day! see you tomorrow for the free. love you all

 

[Mathematician]

Wow that was good

I imagine they aren't peaked yet, still recovering from a long break. Would be nice to see them scoring 90s again by Nationals. They have two effective programs. Have you seen their FD yet? It's extremely difficult. One wrong move and it's finished. I hope they pull it off this season.

 

[AlexBreeze]

I can't believe how much I'm enjoying this RD group.

Nationals is going to be a blast! Who knew ID and Men would be the most exciting groups in Russia this year? Out of nowhere.

Ice dance is honestly even less stacked than last season. There were 12 teams per stage last season.

KhudaBazin retired
Khavronina/Narizhny aren't skating
Vakhnov quit
Tyutyunina/Grachev aren't competing
M/U and P/C are not in their prime shape

 

[AlexBreeze]

no, it's just that the international coaching teams are lazy. see the difference with the russians? same decade of course and style and yet look how diverse it looks. the team doing Madonna is mixing Vogue with SEcret, no international team is using other 90s Madonna songs. they're crystallized on the same 4 pieces

Part of that is due to there are some stupid rules internationally and Russian judges don't care about them. But I agree it could be more diverse. Yoshida/Morita did a great job.

 

[AlexBreeze]

Anisimova WD

Sad but there's no way she could compete in this shape.

 

[lariko]

I really enjoyed the dance particularly Zhdanova/Babaev-Smirnov. Khudaberdieva and Vasil'ev kept saying that the Russians interpret ISU's directions for dance as diskoteka, and honestly, this had a feel of a diskoteka in a pionerlager'. If that's what they were shooting for, they nailed it. Love Khudaberdieva

 

[AlexBreeze]

*Women's SP live thoughts*

Arina Kudlai - great beginning of the event. She had problems with URs before but today everyone looked clean. She might make it to nationals.

Daria Tretiakova - another solid skate. I see, she moved the combo to the second half again. It didn't look rotated unfortunately.

Maria Pulina - very difficult program choreo-wise. The flip wasn't too good. That's sad because at the warm-up she practiced it exactly with this difficult entry and landed it easily. She seems to have weak SS actually, the step sequence really highlights that. I think and hope she makes it to nationals here. She was the first skater to get plushies, the crowd really loved her.

Taisia Lepikhina - she had disaster warm-up. Fortunately, she managed to do everything she is capable of in the actual skate.

Ekaterina Tsipukhina - I don't understand what happened. I knew she had very weak performance at the qualification. But she actually had very good warm-up. What went wrong? Nerves? During the warm-up they said that she returned to her hometown and is training and recovering there. But Butsaeva still advices her sometimes.

Kseniia Sinitsyna - inconsistent warm-up. There even messy 2As. The actual skate was much better. She somehow managed to save that Lutz, it looked absolutely hopeless. Her skills were clearly much better than everyone else in this group.

I only looked at Anisimova during the second warm-up. No idea how others did.

So, about Ekaterina Anisimova. In the morning, I saw her in a video on Channel One, and it was obvious that she had grown up a lot. During the warm-up, she mostly did double jumps. It seemed like she didn't have the strength to take off. I thought it was due to her sudden growth, but it's unlikely to be the only reason. She was breathing heavily and had a lot of conversations with the coach, so I believe there might be some health problems involved. I was absolutely shocked when she did the 3F+3T in the skate. It's just crazy, both the fact that she even tried to do it (instead of her signature 3T+3T or 3F+2T), and the fact that she was able to land it. I'm not surprised that loop disaster happened, she just had no strength left. She expectedly withdrew right after the skate. Not sure we ever know what actually happened. It's hard to say anything about the program because of the shape, but I think it has potential. I hope we'll see it again someday (and a new free skate, of course). I hope she can recover. My only concern is her jumping technique, it may stop working due to her growth.

Adeliia Petrosian was much better than the rest of the field. PCS-wise, tech-wise, everything. I know that her scores are being discussed in various places right now but it was really great. And she also has insane support. The last time I heard something like this was when Tuktamysheva competed.

Something is happening to Alina Gorbacheva. She was warming-up while Adeliia was waiting her scores. Suddenly, she fell on the combo attempt and couldn't stand up. She was clearly in pain. It was unclear whether she performs. She talked to the coaches for a while, did a 3Lz+2T, and it seems like she decided to skate without a 3+3. I think the mistakes on the step sequence were related to the pain. I'm not sure if she should be second today. She has a 4S planned but that's absolutely insane in her current shape.

 

[Jontor]

*Women's SP live thoughts*

Arina Kudlai - great beginning of the event. She had problems with URs before but today everyone looked clean. She might make it to nationals.

Daria Tretiakova - another solid skate. I see, she moved the combo to the second half again. It didn't look rotated unfortunately.

Maria Pulina - very difficult program choreo-wise. The flip wasn't too good. That's sad because at the warm-up she practiced it exactly with this difficult entry and landed it easily. She seems to have weak SS actually, the step sequence really highlights that. I think and hope she makes it to nationals here. She was the first skater to get plushies, the crowd really loved her.

Taisia Lepikhina - she had disaster warm-up. Fortunately, she managed to do everything she is capable of in the actual skate.

Ekaterina Tsipukhina - I don't understand what happened. I knew she had very weak performance at the qualification. But she actually had very good warm-up. What went wrong? Nerves? During the warm-up they said that she returned to her hometown and is training and recovering there. But Butsaeva still advices her sometimes.

Kseniia Sinitsyna - inconsistent warm-up. There even messy 2As. The actual skate was much better. She somehow managed to save that Lutz, it looked absolutely hopeless. Her skills were clearly much better than everyone else in this group.

I only looked at Anisimova during the second warm-up. No idea how others did.

So, about Ekaterina Anisimova. In the morning, I saw her in a video on Channel One, and it was obvious that she had grown up a lot. During the warm-up, she mostly did double jumps. It seemed like she didn't have the strength to take off. I thought it was due to her sudden growth, but it's unlikely to be the only reason. She was breathing heavily and had a lot of conversations with the coach, so I believe there might be some health problems involved. I was absolutely shocked when she did the 3F+3T in the skate. It's just crazy, both the fact that she even tried to do it (instead of her signature 3T+3T or 3F+2T), and the fact that she was able to land it. I'm not surprised that loop disaster happened, she just had no strength left. She expectedly withdrew right after the skate. Not sure we ever know what actually happened. It's hard to say anything about the program because of the shape, but I think it has potential. I hope we'll see it again someday (and a new free skate, of course). I hope she can recover. My only concern is her jumping technique, it may stop working due to her growth.

Adeliia Petrosian was much better than the rest of the field. PCS-wise, tech-wise, everything. I know that her scores are being discussed in various places right now but it was really great. And she also has insane support. The last time I heard something like this was when Tuktamysheva competed.

Something is happening to Alina Gorbacheva. She was warming-up while Adeliia was waiting her scores. Suddenly, she fell on the combo attempt and couldn't stand up. She was clearly in pain. It was unclear whether she performs. She talked to the coaches for a while, did a 3Lz+2T, and it seems like she decided to skate without a 3+3. I think the mistakes on the step sequence were related to the pain. I'm not sure if she should be second today. She has a 4S planned but that's absolutely insane in her current shape.

Thank you @AlexBreeze . Great stuff!

 

[AlexBreeze]

*Men's SP live thoughts*

Artemiy Marinin - nice kid with great lines and posture. I'm happy that he got such an opportunity. Many people say that he should stop trying, but I like that he's doing what he wants to.

Roman Savosin - man became very popular. I was at this stage last season and not much people rooted for him. Today it felt like everyone came just because of him. He's in nice shape.

Mikhail Polyanskiy - unfortunately medium Misha. I don't think he makes it to nationals.

Semion Soloviov - had a messy warm-up. No falls or pops but he couldn't control landings of his big jumps. The skate was much better. It's unusual for Semion, usually it's otherwise. Not perfect, but deservedly in the final group. I think and hope he makes it to nationals here.

Artem Kovalev - the crowd was clearly waiting for him. Unfortunately the skate was worse than at the previous stage. Both quads were UR (as they were during the warm-up). The 3A was soo big. The steps were bad but his energy is something else. He seems to have nice SS and ice coverage. It always seemed to me that he was about to smash the boards. After the skate, he got a lot of plushies with various characters from the Sonic Series. I think he mentioned that he wanted one of them, haha. He looked disappointed with the score but, well, the URs and poor non-jumping elements, there's not much to discuss.

During the second warm-up I was mainly following Semenenko (but not only him, he wasn't warming-up much actually).

Damir Cheripka - absolutely disaster warm-up. I started worrying for him that he doesn't make it to nationals even though he just needs to earn several points here. But he came and did great for his level, that was nice to see. That quad was beautiful.

Mark Kondratiuk - definitely the best skate of this program. Everyone loved it.

Nikita Sarnovskiy - I was about to complain about AoP again. But you know, he was actually trying to present the program. At least, it was much better than in juniors.

Petr Gumennik - before the event I thought he doesn't skate well here. He was on vacation after Skate Milano so he wouldn't be in best shape here. But his warm-up was actually great. He was even rotating jumps. I don't know what happened in the actual skate. He just suddenly became very nervous. The Lutz was hopeless, the 3A and 4F are barely rotated. Not sure I agree with the score.
He won the plushies contest. They were cleaning the ice for several minutes. Makar literally couldn't warm-up.
I can't say I like his skating, but I feel sorry for him. Obviously, they couldn't consider anyone else because of the AIN criteria. However, he's now hated by the fans of other skaters, and every performance is an incredible pressure.

Makar Ignatov - that was better than in Kazan! As I said, finally a short program that suits Makar. He really sold it today.

Evgeni Semenenko - I didn't know what to expect as he just withdrew from test skates because of some injury and it wasn't known if he is in any shape. But the warm-up was absolutely usual for him. He just checked jumps, they looked very easy, and that's all, I wasn't nervous for him at all. Don't know what happened on that 4T. Probably the boards were too close? After that, I started to worry, because before, in such cases, he would do something like 2S+3T. But he easily nailed the combo he didn't even warm-up. The crowd literally screamed after it. To be honest, from that point until the end of the performance, the music was almost inaudible because of the audience. Channel One usually drowns out the stands, so it's unclear from the broadcast. The last time I heard something like this was when he first performed with his k-pop FS. Pity about the 3A. It was absolutely easy at the warm-up. The program is very good, but I don't think it surpasses Adagio and Le Clown at the moment. He seems to really work on his non-jumping elements. He literally outclassed the field in this aspect today. He was just faster at the spins, I am not even talking about the step sequence. In general, they were the reason he was able to beat Mark. I don't know if he's in shape for a FS but he has 4 quads planned.
It was nice to see Tatiana Mishina and Egor Cheloshkin with him. I don't remember when they travelled to an event last time.

 

[AlexBreeze]

*RD live thoughts*

Shinkarenko/Antonov - I'm glad I was able to see them. They were going so good until the fluke fall. I wanted them at nationals but their RDs at both stages... I like that they seem to support each other after mistakes and bad skates. I thought they wouldn't match in personality, but it seems they really do. I hope they progress.

Kolomenskaia/Frolov - they haven't any progressed since juniors unfortunately. The RD is better than last season but still not very memarable to me. Given Anna's scores reaction, I'm afraid she retires again.

Kirillova/Karpov - it was a pleasant surprise to figure out that Liza is still skating. Of course they are not fighting for anything. They are just having fun, why not?

Prokopets/Vaskovich - the best skate from them in many time. The best twizzles from her I've ever seen (the ones at the warm-up very bad, by the way). I wonder what happens in the free. Their free dance is promising but very difficult. In this shape they might finally sell it. Vaskovich has great SS.

The second group's warm-up was scary. There were many dangerous situations on the ice. 5 couples per warm-up is really a lot.

Rybakova/Makhnonosov and Grigorieva/Artyuschenko were technically solid. Can't say much about their dances, though. R/M had some interesting ideas just like last season but G/A are still juniorish. Well, that was first G/A's senior event. They looked very excited about that, by the way. After the performance, they didn't leave the ice for a long time, and Vasilisa approached the audience and greeted everyone. Yes, that's right, this is their first competition in front of so many people.

Zhdanova/Babaev-Smirnov - it's third time in a row when Varvara and Timur are medal contenders at the Moscow stage. Finally they are really close to winning their first medal. I just hope they do everything they could in the free. There won't be such a chance anymore.
The performance was good, although the twizzles didn't work out very well. They were scarily close to each other. During the warm-up, they couldn't really practice twizzles because someone was constantly in their way.

Shevchenko/Ezhlov - The best skate I've seen from them. The crowd didn't agree with the score.

 

[lariko]

*Women's SP live thoughts*

Arina Kudlai - great beginning of the event. She had problems with URs before but today everyone looked clean. She might make it to nationals.

Daria Tretiakova - another solid skate. I see, she moved the combo to the second half again. It didn't look rotated unfortunately.

Maria Pulina - very difficult program choreo-wise. The flip wasn't too good. That's sad because at the warm-up she practiced it exactly with this difficult entry and landed it easily. She seems to have weak SS actually, the step sequence really highlights that. I think and hope she makes it to nationals here. She was the first skater to get plushies, the crowd really loved her.

Taisia Lepikhina - she had disaster warm-up. Fortunately, she managed to do everything she is capable of in the actual skate.

Ekaterina Tsipukhina - I don't understand what happened. I knew she had very weak performance at the qualification. But she actually had very good warm-up. What went wrong? Nerves? During the warm-up they said that she returned to her hometown and is training and recovering there. But Butsaeva still advices her sometimes.

Kseniia Sinitsyna - inconsistent warm-up. There even messy 2As. The actual skate was much better. She somehow managed to save that Lutz, it looked absolutely hopeless. Her skills were clearly much better than everyone else in this group.

I only looked at Anisimova during the second warm-up. No idea how others did.

So, about Ekaterina Anisimova. In the morning, I saw her in a video on Channel One, and it was obvious that she had grown up a lot. During the warm-up, she mostly did double jumps. It seemed like she didn't have the strength to take off. I thought it was due to her sudden growth, but it's unlikely to be the only reason. She was breathing heavily and had a lot of conversations with the coach, so I believe there might be some health problems involved. I was absolutely shocked when she did the 3F+3T in the skate. It's just crazy, both the fact that she even tried to do it (instead of her signature 3T+3T or 3F+2T), and the fact that she was able to land it. I'm not surprised that loop disaster happened, she just had no strength left. She expectedly withdrew right after the skate. Not sure we ever know what actually happened. It's hard to say anything about the program because of the shape, but I think it has potential. I hope we'll see it again someday (and a new free skate, of course). I hope she can recover. My only concern is her jumping technique, it may stop working due to her growth.

Adeliia Petrosian was much better than the rest of the field. PCS-wise, tech-wise, everything. I know that her scores are being discussed in various places right now but it was really great. And she also has insane support. The last time I heard something like this was when Tuktamysheva competed.

Something is happening to Alina Gorbacheva. She was warming-up while Adeliia was waiting her scores. Suddenly, she fell on the combo attempt and couldn't stand up. She was clearly in pain. It was unclear whether she performs. She talked to the coaches for a while, did a 3Lz+2T, and it seems like she decided to skate without a 3+3. I think the mistakes on the step sequence were related to the pain. I'm not sure if she should be second today. She has a 4S planned but that's absolutely insane in her current shape.

Oh my gosh, she absolutely shouldn't skate of she has an injury this fresh.

 

[AlexBreeze]

So, about Ekaterina Anisimova.

Update: I watched Channel One post-training videos. It's very obvious that she was ill. And she herself said that she wasn't fine.

 

[elektra blue]

hello everyone!

 

[AlexBreeze]

St Petersburg skaters brought their weather with them. It's been snowing for two days.

 

[flanker]

It seems Anisimova withdrew from the competition.

 

[AlexBreeze]

It seems Anisimova withdrew from the competition.

Yes, I said about it above. She's clearly ill.

 

[flanker]

On 1TV stream is already running, on youtube it did not start yet...

 

[Mathematician]

Waking up is impossible. I was hitting my snooze button for like an hour.

 

[elektra blue]

they forgot the youtube stream

 

[elektra blue]

i switched to 1tv