On Site Reports: Russian Championships 2016

I'm watching this event recently and get very curious about what it's like to watch it in a venue. Just found there's no on site reports but not sure if there should be one as I'm new here.
So, pls feel free to remove/delete this thread if it's inappropriate.

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If you are watching the practices or any of the competition in person, please feel free to share your stories with us on this thread.
Who is doing well?
Who is standing out?
What are you eating at the venue?

Yes, I second this! Anyone who was lucky enough to watch the ladies event live should give us some reports, however brief. Please and thank you

Seruleane said:

Yes, I second this! Anyone who was lucky enough to watch the ladies event live should give us some reports, however brief. Please and thank you

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OK, but not earlier than tomorrow when we are back from Ekaterinburg.

[email protected] said:

OK, but not earlier than tomorrow when we are back from Ekaterinburg.

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Oh pls, late is better than never!

We arrived to Ekaterinburg at 1 a.m. on Saturday. First impression: this is the real Russian winter we do not see in Moscow any longer. Minus 12 Celsius and a lot of snow everywhere. The city itself is quite beautiful. Even at 2 a.m. there were many cars and a lot of city lights.

Next day we went to the rink. Our seats were in lounge 7. I saw this lounge idea in the U.S.A. when we were taken to a baseball game: a leisure room for food, drinks, and discussions and a balcony with seats. Quite comfortable. The location of the lounge was unique: just above the tech controller so that I could see in all details Lakernik at work. It is quite instructive. In fact he was not at the driver’s seat: it was a lady who pushed the buttons. Then whatever from the list of elements at the left of the screen was marked red was reviewed more than one time. They do have high resolution slow motion and stop-framing. But there is only one camera. Then I assume that URs and edges could not be 100% visible all the times.

Pairs came first. The first group was OK but nothing special. Just thought that Poluyanova/Korotkov were better than Efimova/Korovin who got better scores. The second group started stronger. Bazarova/Deputat delivered much higher quality skating than all pairs before and their result was quite deserved. Then came Zabiyako/Enbert. Even during the warm-up they stood out. She is just a beauty, and if there was a beauty contest, I guess, she would compete with Artemyeva for the first spot. He is huge – visually much higher than 190. Together they make a gorgeous couple with very beautiful skating – as TAT says (mostly when criticizing D/R) a true pair skating. They made mistakes and I was surprised by their score. But if they overcome tech issues and develop further they may become the future of the Russian pairs.

V/T opened the last group. Sorry to say that but I was a bit underwhelmed after seeing their amazing Indian SP on TV. They skated in sync with good elements. But towards the end they slowed down. And for the world leaders they should do clean triple throws esp. when others manage to do clean quads. Still the best here but not better than S/K in Barcelona, in fact quite weaker. K/S’s Manfred left me cold this time. May be they were too cautious knowing that they desperately need the second place because S/K will be selected for sure. May be I just saw it for the 20th time or so and got tired of it. Tarasova/Morozov were better and were quite close. She doubled the salchov, they had a shaky lift and they did not manage to keep the sync in parallel spins. The tech reviewed the lift and spins many times before making the verdict. I am all for K/S – they have to be in the team if they want to get to the Olympics. But T/M were better overall. And their quad twist is just unreal!

Ladies. The field is amazing. Even the first group was not boring like, alas, happens a lot of times during many other competitions. It had its highlight – Alisa Fedichkina. She is so lovely. I could see that her image of a kitty a bit reminded the image of a reading girl from the short. But anyway she feels the music, she connects with the audience, and she was clean. 124 is a good score but if she managed to be in the second group, I think, she would get higher than that. I noticed Ekaterina Bayanova last year when she delivered a clean performance with 6 triples and got very low marks for that. The same happened here during SP. I think she was underscored. Then she showed up in the same dress for the FP – I don’t know if something happened to her other dress or she just does not have it. Anyway, she showed good basic skills but coming after Alisa she had the level she just could not reach.

The second group started with Sima. I mostly loved her skating and think that her second mark should have been higher: at the level of Tsurskaya and Leonova at least. It’s a good improvement since the beginning of the year. But she has to build her way up same as Yulia. And on this way she had to be clean for a while and overcome the axel thing. It was visible how painful for her to jump axels and this detracts from the overall positive impression. Liza was just pitiful. The first 10 seconds of the program was a preparation for the 3A which she sort of made. Then came the “jump part” – she skated from one jump to another. Some she made – others popped. Only at the end when she realized she did not make it she gave it to her feelings. The SS was just fierce: fast and emotional. I know she can make it and she surely will but not this season. I am not sure if there were cases when the active WC does not make it to the team. But it would be “a crime” to let Liza now – she does not deserve it. Cannot say much about Artemyeva’s skating because most of the times I was just looking at her legs and contemplating about her “dress”. But if she is not just skating for fun she should do something different. I gave up on Leonova. Her skating was boring and she was not clean. Sotskova delivered a bit labored but clean as whistle performance. I thought it would be a shame if she is treated like at the SP. Then I shouted: “fair judging!” although my wife said they would not hear because their ears are covered. Anyway, she was scored fairly. And I hope it will boost her self-confidence and her rankings.

Adelina started the last group. Frankly speaking, I was not impressed. Cudos to her not popping the jumps – trying with falls shows the character. But overall that was not the glorious Adelina we want to see. She was slow closer to the end. And she looked heavy. No generosity on the tech side: bravo, Lakernik. Radionova is a fighter. For another time she missed the opening 3Lz- 3T to make it in a few seconds. But her all performance looked like a fight while it should not be – it’s a love story. I enjoyed her more at CoR and I think she was overscored. Tsurskaya is Tsurskaya – showed what we expected her to show and received proper score for that. She needs to trash this chess program and make up something very different. Otherwise, she will become “that girl with the huge delayed lutz”. Pogorilaya had the skate of her life. She was just a bit slower than I remember her from the last year CoR. But it was nothing like Liza caution. She skated through her image – she nailed up the audience’s attention from the first second to the last. And she was clean. There were no SO – the crowd is not get used to it. But the ovation was still enormous. That was THE performance. I saw very little or no red marks on tech’s screen – they saw nothing to review. Bravo! Was it hard for Yulia to skate right after such a performance while technically still competing with Anna for the podium? I don’t know. She skated calm and very very beautifully. Her pcs are below Adelina, Lena, and Liza. I do not agree with that. And the judges will change it once she fixes the jumps. I was literally counting how many are still left because I wanted her to nail them all. She could not. She will not make the team this season. But she showed that she still has it.

And finally Medvedeva. This was “kosmos” – the outer space. I don’t know how puberty will affect her. We just have to enjoy it while it lasts. She was like a butterfly effortlessly flying over the ice. She was fast. She was clean. She was never as good as yesterday and I do not care if her score is too high. If we believe in 148 in Barcelona, 150+ for THAT is more than deserved. That was the second outstanding performance of the night. Two outstanding performances make the outstanding competition.

Thank You So Much for taking your time to write such a great report! I enjoyed it a lot. & to samkrut.

[email protected] said:

Pogorilaya had the skate of her life. She was just a bit slower than I remember her from the last year CoR. But it was nothing like Liza caution. She skated through her image – she nailed up the audience’s attention from the first second to the last. And she was clean. There were no SO – the crowd is not get used to it. But the ovation was still enormous. That was THE performance. I saw very little or no red marks on tech’s screen – they saw nothing to review. Bravo! Was it hard for Yulia to skate right after such a performance while technically still competing with Anna for the podium? I don’t know. She skated calm and very very beautifully. Her pcs are below Adelina, Lena, and Liza. I do not agree with that. And the judges will change it once she fixes the jumps. I was literally counting how many are still left because I wanted her to nail them all. She could not. She will not make the team this season. But she showed that she still has it.

And finally Medvedeva. This was “kosmos” – the outer space. I don’t know how puberty will affect her. We just have to enjoy it while it lasts. She was like a butterfly effortlessly flying over the ice. She was fast. She was clean. She was never as good as yesterday and I do not care if her score is too high. If we believe in 148 in Barcelona, 150+ for THAT is more than deserved. That was the second outstanding performance of the night. Two outstanding performances make the outstanding competition.

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Among your fabulous ovservations from the arena, I really loved the above quotes in the Ladies. Anna Pogo is my sentinental favorite, Yulia L is my husband's, so we both were over the moon during SP on TV broadcast. :yes:
I am curious to know how Petrov's skating was to your eyes. When I saw him at SkateCanada on TV, my only impression was 'okay, another Mishin student, who has solid jumps...' But this boy pleasantly surprised me at this Nats. He did improve his skating a lot as the season deepens, I thought.

TV camera does not always show actual performances; such as skating qualities, speed, refinements/polishments, connection to the audience, etc. TV camera sometimes falis to properly reflect actual reactions from the audience; such as heat, excitement, anxiety, or sigh of relief... Nothing compares watching the competition at the arena live. Thus a lot of GS members always look forward to, with eagerness and much appreciation, reading reports from those who attend live competitions. Just imagine, how could I, while living in Japan, talk to someone who've attended Russian Nats and get some feedback in real life??? Again Thank You.

deedee1 said:

Thank You So Much for taking your time to write such a great report! I enjoyed it a lot. :love :& to samkrut.

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You are more than welcome! In fact we should all thank user EKM for giving me the hint how to get seats at the nationals - I thought it was hopeless. Being an "office hours man" I was only on Saturday and Sunday. Hence, I unfortunately did not see the men.