Today is the second Sunday in September, it's rainy and it feels like summer has left us forever. My Challenge is also coming to an end, which I am thanking for living again the sports stories of all the skaters in this group - adults and juniors. However if I let the juniors go with joy, wishing them a happy new season, when I let the adults go, I have to cry. Today I will say goodbye to figure skater Aleksandrina Degtyareva.
The moment of transition to the adult team has come. If Aleksandrina didn't achieve success in the juniors, in seniors she had no chance to even get close to the top. She could have tried to succeed in her home country and become the number two of the St. Petersburg team, but even here she had competition from Samodurova, Gubanova, Nugumanova, Konstantinova.... Unfortunately, it was beyond her abilities. Aleksandrina grew larger and bigger, and it became more and more difficult for her to cope with her jumps. It's a shame she couldn't handle the competition.
I really like her programs from this period. Aleksandrina is a mature, liberated woman, confident in herself. She got a short program to the music from the movie "Burlesque" and a free program to Bonny Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart. This is a mature, desirable, attractive, energetic woman, able to feel deeply, love and experience emotions deeply.
Alas, she was well aware that things were not going according to plan and no good would come of it. The 2019-2020 season, when the pandemic began, was Aleksandrina's last competitive season.
I hope she's happy now, though she touchingly admits she worries when she remembers she can jump. I hope she is actually happy to be a coach and lead her students to victories. She is happy about the success of her boys and Ksenia Gushchina, who has already had more success than she`s coach.
I hope that she actually got what she wanted. That every night as she finishes her day, she is happy to be living the life she is living and not dreaming about her name being played over the stadium and taking to the ice to music. Hopefully, all of that is in the past.
But this is a total eclipse of my heart. You have totally eclipsed my heart, Rina.
A small announcement. After much thought, I have created separate fan-themes for Konstantin Supatashvili (he has successes at international junior starts) and Ksenia Gushchina (she has successes at major domestic starts). I think they have at least a few fans, so they need their own fan festivals, where all interesting materials will be published. I think the next topic will be created for Ivan Ramzenkov, but I'll wait for his official 14th birthday in December first, and at the same time look at his progress in the season.
News about these guys, as well as Andrei Mozalev, will be posted in their fan threads. I will continue to post news about the rest of the group's students and coaches here.
It's a beautiful fall day and my Challenge is officially over. In two days I will leave for open skating in Moscow and officially open the new season. I want to end the off-season on a major note, so the last hero of the Challenge will be my favorite and the only girl in the team - Ksyusha Gushchina.
In the season 2021-2022 Ksyusha debuted on RusNat. She was 14 y.o., she took 15th place, not many people paid attention to her. But the next season this girl became #2 of the St. Petersburg team and entered the top 10 Russian woman figure skaters, which is quite an achievement.
Good luck to you in the new season, Ksyusha! We won't see you at the open skating, unfortunately, but we are looking forward to seeing you at the first competitions of the season.
I had so much believe in this guy - and he made it! Timofei Shelkovnikov and his first 3A! A bit shame for the step-out, but it was a completed 3A! Great job, kid! And I really like the music to SP
Congratulations to Timofei on his bronze medal and successfully landed a trixel! I always believed in this guy!
Timofei can skate much better, but he was too focused on the trixel and that's why he lost in presentation, plus he's not in the best shape. Anyway, I'm glad he's getting stronger.
This was the qualifiers. We will see the brothers at one of the first two stages of the GP (R), in Ufa or Omsk. Maybe they will be sent to one of the stages together, maybe they will be separated.