Trusova is the Goddess. She performed 4 quads in the one program and is not afraid of Zagitova and Medvyedeva
Valeria Kukaleva Aleksandra has completed another historic achievement at the Japan Open commercial tournament.
Every year at the beginning of October, the Japan Open is organised for the Japanese people who love figure skating: an unusual team tournament involving only skaters from the singles disciplines. Three teams competed: Europe, Japan and North America, in each team - two girls and two men. Each shows only their free program, the scores are added up and the winning team is revealed.
In the 2019/20 season, the organizers invited two pupils of Eteri Tutberidze for the European team - the most titled Alina Zagitova and the quadruple jumping master Aleksandra Trusova, who began her first senior season. The lineups were approved a long time ago, and after the first competitions it turned out that the former and current world record holders were going to Japan - Sasha surpassed Alina's last year’s achievement at the Ondrei Nepela memorial. For the men, Europe was represented by the current (and seven-time) continental champion Javier Fernandez, who had already finished his career, and the beloved pupil of Stephan Lambiel - Latvian Denis Vasiliev.
Japan Open is a commercial tournament: personal bests from it are not registered in the ISU system, world records do not count, and Fernandez goes on the ice again. The American team also had returnees - Mirai Nagasa - the first American to land a triple Axel at the Olympics.
In any case, the Russian girls should have saved Europe: Fernandez maintains his shape more like a fan now, Vasiliev lands and twists the quadruple Toeloop only on major holidays, the triple Axel (which his trainer Lambiel did not like) is a little more often. And in other teams there were titled quadists Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou and Syoma Uno.
That's exactly what happened. Chen scored under 190 with four quads, Zhou received competitive 167.64 points, Uno - 169.09. His compatriot Koshiro Simada scored not the highest 153.37, but still beat both Europeans: Fernandez was put in hundredths less, Vasiliev did not break even this modest bar of 150. The girls needed to win back 22.67 points from the Japanese and 57.68 from the North Americans .
Third starting number, Trusova appeared on the ice in the image of the Mother of Dragons from 'Game of Thrones' and made a real
dracarys from everyone: for the first time in the history of women's single skating four (!!!) quads were performed in a free program. Solo Salchow - for the first time since the 2017/18 season, solo Lutz, quadruple Toeloop in a cascade with a triple and another Toeloop in a cascade with an Euler and a triple Salchow.
Nathan Chen himself returned to admire Alexandra's quads in his IG Story: he watched her skating run on TV under the stands and recorded two quadruple jumps on video, expressing respect to the girl who almost beat him in technical terms (Sasha will not be able to get close to men in terms of components) for girls, these are calculated at a lower factor.
And they gave Trusova low marks. 160.53 was less than in Nepela with three quads (163.78). 158.50 - Zagitova's old world record, set without ultra-si elements - only with a cascade of triple Lutz-triple Rittberger. But you should not take this commercial tournament seriously: different competitions are judged by different judges, and if in Nepela two weeks ago the good-natured referees pleased everyone with high marks, then in Japan they showed strictness: not even Riki Kihira, the contestant most loved by the spectators, which did two triple axels got the highest score.
But Zagitova was judged as loyally as possible - without elements of increased complexity and with a Rittberger cascade in the first half, she received 154.41 points. In Alina’s favour worked her competitive record with many its titles, a more meaningful skating (yes, the most mature female) and her reputation in Japan: the skater’s favourite pet is Akita Inu
Masaru, and they are almost on friendly terms with the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
At a Japanese commercial tournament, these results should not be taken seriously: the first really important confrontation between Zagitova and Trusova can take place in the Grand Prix finals in early December, if both even get there, because for now Sasha needs to beat Yevgeniya Medvyedeva in both stages.
Here and Now, at the Japan Open, the girls coped: conquered the Japanese and North American women, conquered the European men and pulled themselves into first place in the team tournament.
1. The European team (Zagitova, Trusova, Vasiliev, Fernandez) - 614.73 points
2. The national team of Japan (Kihira, Miyahara, Shimada, Uno) - 602.16
3. The team of North America (Tennell, Nagasu, Zhou, Chen) - 593.42.
Aleksandra Trusova enjoys her own achievements and constantly wants to improve. She needs not to look back at Zagitova and Medvyedeva, not directly in front of her, at Shcherbakova with her quad Lutz, but further ahead, where 14-year-old American Alisa Liu follows in her footsteps in the juniors. Liu has so far only a triple Axel and one quad, but a year of age difference can be spent on learning the remaining ultra-si elements.
In fact Sasha is a very simple girl. If quad quads are not enough for her to win, she will learn a Flip or a Rittberger, or maybe both jumps at once. The ongoing story concerning triksels should also end with a happy ending: Trusova is unlikely to tolerate that someone else is doing what she herself doesn't know how to do.
Yesterday, fans of Yevgeniya Medvyedeva launched a flash mob on a Russian-language Twitter and brought the hashtag #MedvedevBogina to the first place. It's time for a new one. Trusova - Goddess.
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From:
https://www.eurosport.ru/figure-skating/story_sto7486413.shtml
