This is the second part of a compilation of promising junior skaters that competed in the 2017 Russian Junior Nationals. You can find the first part here. Sofia Samodurova I found Sofia out through her participation in the Junior Grand Prix Series last season. At 14, she is coached by Tatiana Mishina and Oleg Tataurov (from Alexei Mishin’s coaching team). She is another beautiful and delicate skater from Russia, with a great quality to her skating. She was 12th at junior nationals. Her best short program was at the mentioned competition while the best free program was the one she performed at the Grand prix of Japan. Observing her short, you can see she is one of the most beautiful skaters Russia has on the junior ranks. She also has lovely spins. And the opening combination of jumps was amazing. Her free program showed some great jumps as well. I find that she jumps not only vertically but also “horizontally” as she covers a lot of ice in her combinations. She has the potential to be at the top of the junior ladies.
Maria Talalaykina Maria is 14. I have never seen her before but as I was searching her I found out she is a fan of Evgenia Medvedeva, and you can clearly see that in her style of skating. She is coached by Evgeny Rukavitsin. She chose a tango for her short program. She did quite well. She can work on centering her spins more and improve her interpretation skills. Her free program reminded me of weaver & Poje and, of course, Medvedeva. Her jumps were good, but she was really focused on them here. A bit more of interpretation would have made this program more impactful. She finished in 15th.
Anastasia Tarakanova Anastasia Tarakanova was the second youngest skater at Russian Nationals. She is 13 and coached by Svetlana Panova.Being so young entailed no participations on the international scene, which meant I did not know her at all. She had an unfortunate fall right in the beginning, which led her to lose the combination. That mistake ended up giving a small impression of this program. The free program saw her interpreting throughout the step sequence. The jumps were out with the exception of the fall. My main problem with it was the music, which got four cuts and included very different styles. I would have liked to see her do something simpler. She finished in 14th place.
Anna Tarusina Anna Tarusina is 14 and coached by Sergei Davydov. She was supposed to have participated in the Junior Grand Prix Series last season but she had to undergo surgery after a bus accident in the JGP of France. This was the first time I watched her skate. I liked her flamenco short program, which was good overall. The free program was also good, with nice jumps, spins and interpretation. She finished in 10th place.
Alexandra Trusova Alexandra Trusova was a pleasant surprise for me and she is sure to make people talking about her in the junior grand prix this season. She was the youngest skater at junior nationals and finished in fourth, barely missing the spot for Junior Worlds. She is 12 and, no surprise, the coach is Eteri Tutberidze, the same coach of Evgenia Medvedeva. Firstly let’s look at her performances at junior worlds. The short program had a great music choice: a rather used song this year in ice dance, a blues. She did both jumps of her combination with the arms above her head which immediately strikes you. The spins and the remaining jumps were great and let me tell you, so young and interpreting a blues so amazingly! It was the first time I saw her and I thought I would keep an eye on what she accomplishes in a near future. The free program showed all her fierceness. She has so impressive jumps! Not to talk about how good the spins are.
Now the off-season brought her to light for most people because she did a great combination in practice that was never before seen in ladies and that you can see below: yes it is a quad salchow with a triple toe-loop. I won’t be surprised if she attempts a quad in the grand prix next season. Polina Tsurskaya Polina is not an unknown figure at all. She has, however, been struggling with injuries. At 15, she is the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic champion, the 2015–16 JGP Final champion and the 2016 Russian Junior National champion. She is another lady that is coached by Eteri Tutberidze. She finished 3rd at the junior nationals of 2017 and was 10th at the world championships. Her best programs last season were the short program at the Junior Grand Prix of Russia and the free program of the Russian Junior Championships. Starting with her short program, I have to saw: she is skating to the soundtrack of Game of Thrones! So excited! I am hoping people do use it more often. Polina did great. She showed why she was Russia’s number 1 junior lady last season. Really, it has been unfortunate that injuries have been preventing her from fully delivering the programs as we know she can. She has great interpretation/performance skills (which russia’s number 1 now, Alina Zagitova, does not have yet – we can see her below. she gives tremendous height to her jumps and her spins are beautiful. Her free program showed more of those fantastic jumps. Her interpretation is really refined at this point. She is the complete package an another of the Russian ladies you should observe and actually quite soon. Her comeback is close and take notice of her for next year’s Olympics because, yes, she is going to compete as a senior this year, and we will already be able to see her at the Senior Grand Prix.
Victoria Vasilieva Victoria Vasilieva is coached by Viktoria Butsaeva. She is 13 and yet another unknown skater to me. I loved the music choice of her short program. It is really different from what most women bring and is good to see her having so much energy and enjoying it so much. She gave all that she had. I felt bad for the last jump, which she singled, but she was so expressive that people will pay attention to the whole program. The spins were really good. The free program showed she is a fun skater, showing us a fun personality, different that the usual balletic Russian girls. I believe she will go far, as she has nice jumps and spins and an great energy on the ice. She finished in 13th place.
Alina Zagitova She is the new Russian phenomenon and a name to memorize: Alina Zagitova. She is the 2016–17 JGP Final champion, the 2017 Russian national senior silver medalist and the 2017Junior World Champion, all in her junior debut internationally, coached by, yet again, Eteri Tutberidze. At the age of 15, she is going to compete as senior this upcoming season as is considered to be one of the ladies that will represent Russia in the Olympic Winter Games of February. Zagitova is the first junior lady skater to break the total score above the 200 mark, scoring a total of 207.43 points at the 2016-17 JGP Final. She finished 1st in the junior Russian nationals and second in the senior ones last year. You can see her flawless performances at the 2017 Junior World Championships below. She spins well and fast, there is a tremendous consistency on the jumps, not to mention she backloads the programs (she does all her jumps in the second half of the programs in order to get a 10% bonus for every single jump). I liked her free more than the short. I still think she can improve components wise, maybe with more facial expression. And in the case of the free program, as it is a ballet, she could work a little on making those lines really beautiful. These latter piece of advice will actually be important as she is keeping this free program for the Olympic season and she is using Swan Lake for her new short program.
BONUS: These two ladies were the ones that were replaced at nationals because they couldn't compete. However I thought it would be relevant to take a look at them. Alisa Lozko Alisa Lozko is 15 years old. She was coached by Tatiana Mishina and Oleg Tataurov. She is known for her incredible spins and artistry. For that matter, I think the choice she made of changing to ice dance was a good one. Her main problem in singles was the lack of rotation in some jumps. The intense competition in Russia among all these talented girls probably led to this decision, so you can check her programs from the Junior Grand Prix of the Czech Republic and keep in mind that we will be seeing her compete in ice dance.
Anna Shcherbakova Last, but not least, is 13-year-old Anna Shcherbakova, also coached by Eteri Tutberidze. I had never heard of her and she became, by far, one of my favourites. I am rooting for her to be given a grand prix assignment. Why? Well, she is one of the most promising talents to discover in Russia. Those who have seen her can’t stop talking about her (and yes, that includes me). She performs so intensely, the jumps and spins are so well executed and she makes you feel something at such a young age. You can see her performances below, of the short and free programs. Keep in mind she was 12 at the time. Such beauty and commitment to the program. The jumps are incredible. After watching her free I wrote: “better than Medvedeva”. Of course it is a subjective statement, but I like her more. I really can’t wait to see more of her and how she is going to develop. And, alongside Alexandra Trusova (above), she is pulling quite the combinations in this off-season: you can see a quad toe-loop triple toe-loop and, also, a quad toe loop, triple toe-loop, triple loop! Incredible skater!
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Russian Junior Nationals took place between the 1st and 5th of February. After the European Championships and while people await for the Four Continents, all eyes were on Saint Petersburg particularly for the ladies event, which is always of remarkable quality in Russia. Nevertheless, ice dance was also an interesting competition especially because of the closeness of some teams that could have made the team for Junior Worlds. Here are the results of the competition: On what concerns the review of the competition, I will comment on what went down with the main teams and will highlight the couples that I really liked. I will be talking about them by the order in which they started the short dance, with the exception of the first couple which only competed the short dance. Ekaterina Andreeva / Ivan Desyatov
Yana Buga / Georgiy Pokhilyuk
Evgeniia Lopareva / Alexey Karpushov
Eva Kuts / Dmitrii Mikhailov
Sofia Shevchenko / Igor Eremenko
Daria Rumyantseva / Dmitry Ryabchenko
Sofia Polishchuk / Alexander Vakhnov
Angelina Lazareva / Maxim Prokofiev
Elizaveta Khudaberdieva / Nikita Nazarov
Anastasia Skoptsova / Kirill Aleshini
Arina Ushakova / Maxim Nekrasov
Polina Ivanenko / Daniil Karpov
Anastasia Shpilevaya / Grigory Smirnov
Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd
Ksenia Konkina / Grigory Yakushev
Overall, this competition was quite exciting and I think the judging was better than in the senior competition (there was not a large inflation of marks). Moreover, the fact that Shpilevaya/Smirnov earned the title with strong performances may be an indication of what will happen at Junior Worlds. One thing is certain: this is a team that next year will be on the podium. Another couple standing out was Polishchuk/Vakhnov, as they were quite close at making the team for Junior Worlds. With Lodoba/Drozd moving to the senior ranks next season, this team will be given more opportunities to gain experience.
Finally, one thing than concerns figure skating fans is which teams will probably be present at the Junior Grand Prix circuit next season. Based on the results, the teams that will make it may be: Shpilevaya/Smirnov; Skoptsova/Aleshin (I think their best bet would be to move to seniors this year, just like Pogrebinsky/Benoit of the USA did last season, but I don’t think it is going to happen); Polishchuk/Vakhnov; Konkina/Yakushev; Shevchenko/Eremenko; Khudaberdieva/Nazarov and Ushakova/Nekrasov (this couple has not been showing that great results, so maybe Lopareva/Karpushov may have a chance, while I would prefer Kuts/Mikhailov). One team I would love to see would be Ivanenko/Karpov. I guess the last spot will be decided in Test Skates between them, Lopareva/Karpushov, Ushakova/Nekrasov and Kuts/Mikhailov. Moreover, Andreeva/Desyatov may also have a say, because they did well in the short dance and did not perform the free, so if they show they are reliable they may be assigned a Grand Prix. |
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