The last Sunday in July, the start of the season is still a long way off, which means I continue to retrospectively introduce you with the skates of the Davydenko Band coaches. Today is Denis Lunin's day. Paired with Valeria Loseva, he was able to make small strides at the junior level and represented Russia at the Junior Grand Prix stages. So, video from Brisbane, 2011, JGP stage.
We can see that Denis is beginning to grow into a charismatic skater with a bright personality and good glide. Good thing he turned out to have more taste than those who offered them such music and costumes at the time.
Good Wednesday, everyone. Just a reminder that my challenge continues, and today is junior day.
I did a lap on the time machine and almost went back to the present, so gradually we will say goodbye to the participants of our challenge and leave them where they left off - in the present.
Today we will make one last stop for Timofei Shelkovnikov for the 2021-2022 season - and drop him off in the present. He had a pretty successful 2022-2023 season, and now he's hard at work preparing for the new season.
And we'll take a look at how he skated in the 2021-2022 season when he first joined Davydenko's group with his brother Dmitriy.
In order to gauge progress in 1 season of learning from new coaches, I'll post Timofei programs from last season here
SP "I lost my soul"
FS, which I absolutely love. Drum beats, Arabic melodies - and the program is called "Dubai". Notice the great sense of posture in the spins and the beauty of the gestures.
Yes, it's not competitive junior technical content yet, but he has taken many steps forward in the presentation aspects.
I wish you a successful 2023-2024 season, Timofei! I hope that you will be offered beautiful new programs like this, and the technical content will only get more and more complicated.
It's Sunday, it's August, which means my challenge isn't over yet. It can't be finished until we're done with all the characters. If the junior days energize me with optimism, the skating of retired adults leaves me feeling sad. Especially the rentals of Anton Shulepov, the most talented of them all, who climbed higher than all the Challenger participants but never reached the top.
The 2018-2019 season is the first time I see Anton's personality, his nature. He's not just a nice flexible and danceable boy, as he was in juniors; he's not a less fortunate copy of Aliev, as he was in the previous two seasons. I see him as a person, as an artist with his own style and vision to the world. That's the Anton Shulepov I remember.
The season is shaping up quite well. Anton is 7th on Golden Spin, 3rd on Tallinn Trophy. At the National Championship he gets into the top 10, but in the Russian Cup final he becomes 3rd. This guarantees him a place in the national team for the next season. This is good, but Anton obviously wants more, and the competition in the national team is growing, but he is not getting younger and he doesn't get quads, despite all his desire. There is a technical revolution going on, and Anton just can't keep up with it.
This season's short program is set to the rhythmic beats of drums (that's where the idea of drums for Timofey Shelkovnikov in FS last season came from!). Music is Big Taiko Drums by Dewey Delay. Excellent program by Anton, concise and graceful.
In the free program Anton presents a gladiator with music from the movie "Gladiator" (Il Gladiatore by Gavin Greenaway). This epic image suits him very well.
It's Wednesday, still off-season, and it's junior day again in my challenge. Coming soon, these young athletes will present new programs on test skates for the St. Petersburg and national teams, but for now, let's take a look at their skates from last season.
The 2021-2022 season for Dima Shelkovnikov was a milestone season in his career. It's been a few months after the change of coach, and Dmitry is already performing triple axel in SP and in FS. His most successful skate was at the Russian Cup stage, when he won the SP, beating Kolya Kolesnikov, and eventually became 4th. But I offer you a video of a another skating.
In the season 2022-2023 Dmitriy tries to perform 4T in FS for the first time. He also makes it to the junior national team for the first time. What will he achieve in the 2023-2024 season? He`s only 15 y.o., he has a great future.
Ivan Ramzenkov and Dmitriy Shelkovnikov took part in test skates for the St. Petersburg junior team. The judges highly appreciated their readiness for the new season. The referees especially appreciated the preparation of Ivan Ramzenkov, who presented new programs and confidently landed all the ultra-c.
Aleksandr Galliamov (pair skating) works on jumping elements together with Davydenko Band. During the athlete's appearance on the ice sounds music from the movie "Rocky".
Kirill Anatolievich is still very likes his former athlete and likes to make jokes about him.
It should be noted that this season all pairs of Tamara Moskvina practiced jumping elements under the guidance of coach Kirill Davydenko.
It's Sunday again today, it's already mid-August, but our Challenge isn't over yet. I have a few more tough Sundays to get through. During this time, from April through August, it's like I've lived the careers of my adult athletes, reliving their failures and rejoicing in what has worked out. But this story needs to end, and it won't be over until we talk about the inevitable - retirement.
But that's pent-up sadness for me for now. Today, we'll be transported back to the 2017-2018 season, when Aleksandrina Degtyareva was still having a career. While in the case of Anton Shulepov I can say that he always had a chance at the podium, I can't say that about Aleksandrina. It was a rather unsuccessful career of a distinctive and bright skater, who aroused interest but failed to cope with the competition in women's single skating in Russia. She had no special achievements even in juniors. Nevertheless, she won my heart. She is bright, assertive, energetic, artistic, she is completely immersed in what she does.
In the 2017-2018 season, Rina is 17 years old and continues to compete in junior competitions. She wins the St. Petersburg Championship, but only places 20th at the All-Russian Championships. Next season she will move to adult and will lose her chances to participate in the main competitions.
This season's SP is the same "Kill Bill" program, which has become her's visited card. Aleksandrina demonstrates girlish strength, assertiveness and grace, which corresponds to her temperament.
FS contains a completely opposite message. It is a romantic, sentimental girlish image, deep and touching. Music by Soviet composer Eduard Artemiev "And the wind took away her scarf..." creates a pinching mood that makes you want to cry and dance a little to the beat of the music.
Aleksandrina recalls this program and her green dress quite often, it was very memorable for her.