Russian Nationals 2017 live reports | Golden Skate

Russian Nationals 2017 live reports

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Medalist
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Mar 26, 2014
I wonder if anyone else of GS crowd is in Chelyabinsk now but I am here. It's about 4 a.m. I just checked in Widgof hotel whatever the name means. "hof" at the end would mean something German. Anyway, it's a nice 20 story hotel. I am at the 19th floor. All alone... There is some virus in Moscow - half of our office is unwell. And my son got it so that the mom had to stay at home. But as I would be of little help and I had to pull some strings to get good seats (it's crazy how big demand for tickets has been) I decided to go.

So I am here drinking Budweiser (the real one, not "the king of beers") and watching TV. The last time I was watching TV at the hotel was in Chicago. Big difference. There it was just about Trump's "touching women". Here I turned TV on. It was Match TV and they showed....well, figure skating. It was in fact the end of dance FS. SB were last to skate. Beautiful dress, good feeling of each other, very inventive program.... but although they seemed to be as good a couple as PC they are not as fluid especially she. Once they manage a somewhat smoother skating they will be one of the best in the world: everything else is already there.

Now they show Karate kid. It means that I need to call it a day. Good that the program starts at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
 

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OK, I am at the place. First impression is very positive - much better than Megasport. Cozy arena, Christmas decorated lobby, nice atmosphere, rather comfortable seats. I am sitting right behind judges. Don't see TAT though.
 

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Mishina/Mirzoev might have had a bad day. Or they just look much better on TV than live. They were slow, their expression was not that convincing. The throws and the first parallel jumps were good though.

I liked both junior pairs that were after MM. Boikova/Kozlovskiy made a very good progress since JGPF. In fact their first half was Wow! They lost steam a bit towards the end. But MM should beware. These two can make some pressure on them during junior worlds.

Of course, KS were on the league of their own....artistically. A beautiful romantic drama on ice. But, technically looks like they are hopeless. They cannot jump cleanly for quite a while. And after last season when Yuka struggled with quad throws but easily nailed triples this time even triple throws were very fragile. It will be sad if they end their career not on the highest note possible to them which could be last year Europeans. Well, may be some miracle will happen - they are too beautiful to just disappear.

Ok, the leaders now.
 

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Mar 26, 2014
Thank you very much for your commentaries live.

You are quite welcome!

Now that the first group of ladies is on ice some thoughts about the final group of pairs.

A/R were not memorable. In fact the most memorable about them for me is the haircut of Kirill. They still got a much higher score than juniors in the previous group - I would kind of disagree with that. I guess, it was to put some pressure on Z/E in the quest for the third spot in the team.

Z/E were not outstanding as well - I like their SP better. The most outstanding about them is what a beautiful couple they are. I wonder if they are dating. I guess, not - a little more emotions between them would not hurt for sure.

S/K were not from this world. In fact they already beat V/T in terms of the overall impression on ice. Speed, fluidity, body control - that's more than just wow! And what a masterpiece program they have. And if I am not mistaken they went for a 3A throw. But technically wise it was just messy. I don't see the scores. I would give them 9s in pcs - this would make a big impact, sure. But still how they got 143 overall - I think their TES was inflated.

T/M should have won - that's what the audience thought. The only booing was when their score was announced so that they lost the gold. But although I disagree with S/K score I would still put them higher. T/M have to be perfect in TES to make up for the lack of pcs vs. S/K. And they were not.

All in all if S/K manage to be clean they should win over D/R. They have 2 masterpiece programs this season. The Canadians do not.

During the break I met "a big guy" Nagorny whom I saw often during test skates in Sochi. Looks like he is a big fan of figure skating.

To the ladies now.
 

rosy14

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
I envy you so much...
I think when Ksenia is so amazingly beautiful, either you skate superbly, or there's no match.
 

Sugarpova

#EmpressAirlines #SinKatsapologist
Record Breaker
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Feb 19, 2015
huge thx as usual for your report!
sorry about the illness of your child btw:ghug:

Im happy ppl thought TM deserved the gold as most of the forum here did
 

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Even the first group of ladies was fun to watch - that's the depth of the Russian field. Alisa Lozko was a highlight. There is an abyss between her and Medvedeva now. Although she is as close to her style as anyone - the same feather like weightless skating. And she has by far superior spins. Well, no 3-3s and I guess judges treat her as an UR skater now. Can she be saved? I do hope she can become the next big thing. Please, Alisa.

Sima has lost it. No way impression wise was she better than Lozko. Last year she could not jump. But she skated nicely in her "torn" dress. Not now. Very slow with minimum projection. Sad - she impressed me so much 2 years ago.

Poor Ogoreltseva. She started well. But as her St Sq started she already had lost all her stamina. It was a pain to watch.

Second group now. Stasya, davai!
 

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How could Stasya beat Gubanova after popping a loop and apparently missing one jump? I guess, she made that lutz in the end of the program getting extra 10% for that? That would be a grit. Well Nastya Gubanova showed that grit as well after missing the combo she added 3T-2T to a flip - not only Medvedeva can do that.

All in all, what an amazing group of skaters it was.

Mikhailova was as solid as a rock. Any other country - there would be a choir of praises after such a skate. But we are in the Russian nationals. Anyway, I liked her.

Grandma Leonova was her usual self. I wonder what keeps her going on in this crazy field of youngsters? May she does not know what to do next and is scared. May be she just enjoys competitive skating. But it was as entertaining as it could be - she is for one thing an entertainer, and she was on fire, and she was fast.

Whoever says that Gubanova is slow has no clue. She is not. And she is an angel as AlexD once said (btw have not heard from him for quite a while - hope, he is doing fine). And she has Medvdeva's grit. This 3Lz-1T cost her the overall leadership, I guess. But it could have been much worse if she did not do the big combo after 3F.

The audience enjoyed Sofia Samodurova. I can understand it - she is a performer. Some people around me were displeased that she got less than Gubanova. But I saw a serious need for polish in her case. Well, all the basics are there, just a bit of polish and she is a star. She also was sort of slow with a lot of standing. But still very very enjoyable.

Kitty's skating was almost lost in the middle. Although she was very good and connected well to the music with some of her signature skittish movements. Too bad too much talent around. How can she distinguish herself now?

Stasya has enormous presence on ice - I could not feel it on TV. She is sheer power especially during the first half of the program. She can move in Anna P's direction and get to the same level, no doubts. There are not that many ladies with brutal power and speed. And when they are on it's hard not to like them. Konstantinova's problem is that she has been the headcase so far. May be Eteri will take her? She has "a full package" - Medvedeva, she has a bunch of good jumpers: Polina, Alina, and some others. She does not have a powerful skater like Pogorilaya or Konstantinova - and they are not abundant.

2 amazing groups of skaters with virtually no falls (Grandma does not count). What is going to come?
 

Sugarpova

#EmpressAirlines #SinKatsapologist
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Feb 19, 2015
And she is an angel as AlexD once said (btw have not heard from him for quite a while - hope, he is doing fine).

The audience enjoyed Sofia Samodurova. I can understand it
Alex apparently wrote that he would be at the comp too!! I wonder if I understood him right:think:

& I as well was one of the ppl who thought Sofa was underscored:(
 

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Alex apparently wrote that he would be at the comp too!! I wonder if I understood him right:think:
(

In Chelyabinsk? That would be amazing. Then we should expect an excellent report from him - he never betrays expectations.

Now that I got back to the hotel, some impressions from the last group.

Lena R has the same problem as Kitty - she is good but she is stuck in the middle. And she needs to come with fresh ideas. Her program is nice but not a killer like Anna's. She is not very slow but she is not fast either. And her jumps while ok in general look insecure. But all in all she was lowballed vs. Sotskova - a clear signal that she is no longer in the team. I could not understand her emotions after the end of the program - it was not her best performance and she had a mistake. May be she is injured and had to overcome herself?

Liza has become a better skater. In fact it was not just empty skating between the jumps - it was a program skated with a good speed and confidence. Unfortunately, she became a worse jumper at the same time. If it were the time for her 3A at the beginning of the program it was now. And she did not do it and yet fell on some triples. It's her last season or she still has some fire?

Anna was not in her prime shape. I saw this program live 3 times and even more on TV. Today was in the lower half. May be she truly has some health issues, hope, not serious. The audience supported her but it was far from the craziness which happened at CoR. She not only fought for landings - she did not emote the passion the way she can do it. Still quite good, top-notch skating. But I have been spoiled recently - we all have.

Today's Medvedeva was the best I've seen live. She was not only sharp and confident (I would say self-confident with this 3-3-3 at the end - it would be hillarious if she fell on the last non-counted triple) - she was fast especially at the beginning. She was not that fast last year at CoR, at the last year Nationals, and during test skates in Sochi. She was just perfect tonight - and those voiceovers did not distract from her perfection.

Maria had to skate between Medvedeva and Zagitova. It served her no good. Compared with them she looked slow, heavy, and labored. Still a nice program and clean skating. But as I said, I did not get such a big score difference between her and Elena. May be it was just to set a clear sign: Russian team this year is Medvedeva, Pogorilaya, Sotskova - Radionova who was the only real contender for the third spot is out.

Zagitova is a wonder. Whoever says she is a jumping bean and her backloaded program is unbalanced does not get it. The program is fabulous and she skated it fantastically. It is Minkus. The first half is lyrical - it does not imply jumping. The second half is fast. I remember Don Quixote from my childhood - my mom wanted me to get the classics so that I watched a lot of ballet and heard a lot of opera to hate them for some decades before coming back to them in my forties. When the fast music played I remember a muscular guy in white tights first jumping all over the scene and then doing a long fuete. I saw the very same ballet in Zagitova's performance. And she hit the jumps to the music! And she was also light as a feather. Outstanding - I could never get it on TV, she is fantastic live.

OK, that's my impressions from being there. Now got to have some dinner and then, I guess, I have a lot of reading of what GS crowd wrote about what they saw on TV. 45 pages in the ladies thread already! Hope, it is not much of bashing - this hard working girls most of whom showed their best tonight deserve only praize and awe.
 

Seruleane

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Thank you sankrut for the live reports!! You and everyone else in the audience are so lucky to see these amazingly talented ladies live! I think Lena was crying because she knew it was a rough skate and she would not go to Worlds, but that's just me. I have seen her reaction when she is pleased with her skates, and that was NOT it.

Agree Alina is something special though. I can't wait to see her on the senior circuit next year.
 

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Medalist
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Mar 26, 2014
OK, I am checking out from the hotel and moving towards Traktor now. Same seats as yesterday: my colleague in Chelyabinsk got them through connections in the local government. It says about how ridiculously popular this event is. There were no black market guys offering tickets at the entrance yesterday: it means a complete sold-out.
 

Khoai

Match Penalty
Joined
Apr 3, 2015
The overscoring for Miss Sotskova makes me sad. Miss Pogorilaya deserves more.
 
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