Quads solve everything: Dikidzhi and Trusova won gold in Alma Ata

Russian figure skaters won five medals out of a possible nine at the Denis Ten Memorial in Alma Ata. In the men's event, Vladislav Dikidzhi won with the best result of the season among Russian singles — 312.79 points. After a record—breaking short program, he skated a difficult free skate without mistakes and topped the all-Russian podium: Gleb Lutfullin became the second, Peter Gumennik the third. The women's singles tournament ended with Alexandra Trusova's triumph: the 22-year-old Russian took her first international gold in five years. Our duo Vasilisa Kaganovskaya and Maxim Nekrasov also won silver in dancing.

The triumph of Dikigi

The men's short program in Alma Ata gave the Russian fans a lot of positive emotions. Our compatriots are in the top three, and Dikiji topped the table with a fantastic 107.31 points. Even the skater himself was surprised. "I didn't expect such ratings at all, to be honest," Vladislav shared. For comparison, he scored almost 19 points less at his winning Challenger in Japan.

Dikidji had a serious margin before the free skate: 11.52 points over Lutfullin and 26.68 points over Humennik. But the intrigue for him was not limited to the gold of Kazakhstan. The Russian was clearly keeping in mind the result of Evgeny Semenenko in Bratislava — 292.09 points. This amount was a guideline in the fight for the first place in the reserve list of the Grand Prix series.

With such a reserve, it was enough for Vladislav not to flinch. And on Saturday, he didn't just hold the bar — he literally blew it off. In the free skate, Oleg Tataurov's ward performed a clean quadruple lutz, a quadruple flip, a cascade of quadruple salchow — triple toe loop and another quadruple salchow. In the second half, he did a triple axel—oiler—triple salchow—double axel sequence, and then a pure triple axel. In the end, the skater added a cantilever. The judges scored 205.48 points for the free skate — a cosmic 312.79 in total.

Dikiji's teammates could only fight with each other. As a result, there were no changes in the top three after the short program.

Lutfullin could not roll back cleanly: the very first element of the program — the quadruple flip — went with a big minus. But then Gleb pulled out the program with the most complex content: a quadruple rittberger, a sequence of quadruple toe loop — triple axel — triple axel, a pure quadruple salchow and a cascade of quadruple salchow — triple toe loop in the second half. He has 181.44 for the free skate, 277.23 in total and the silver of Kazakhstan.

After making mistakes in the short version, Humennik said that he was not going to change the arbitrary one. But after a clean quadruple flip and a cascade of quadruple lutz— triple toe loops, he made a mistake on the quadruple rittberger. And then I fell off the triple lutz a lot. Fortunately, Peter quickly jumped up and was able to get ready for the end: he completed the sequence with a triple axel and added a quadruple salchow (though with a twist). As a result, the judges rated his rental at 181.13 points. 261.76 in total was enough only for bronze.

—Congratulations to Vladislav and all the guys," three—time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina told Izvestia. — The Russian podium means that we miss you. We have a lot of strong athletes, and they, along with their coaches, refute all predictions about our lag. But this is just the beginning of the season. You should not throw raptures ahead of time. Congratulations, yes, and support, yes. They are successful and perform well after a long break. But there should be no euphoria.

The Americans' mistake

Before the men's free skate this Saturday, our skaters managed to get another medal — Vasilisa Kaganovskaya and Maxim Nekrasov became the second in ice dancing, scoring 187.20 points.

After the first day, they came in third, but in the free dance they got 112.92 and rose to the silver position. The Americans' mistake helped: Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, who were in the lead on the first day, fell on synchronized twizzles at the beginning of the rental and fell back to the third place of the podium with a total of 180.37. And the Finns Julia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis won in Kazakhstan.

Another duet from Russia, Irina Khavronina and David Narizhny, stopped one step away from the podium — 179.04. In the free dance, they had the third result of the day, but they could not regain the gap after Friday's rental. Anna Shcherbakova and Egor Goncharov finished the tournament sixth with 169.77.

Point question: Trusova and Gumennik will compete in Alma Ata for the Grand Prix

Due to the new ISU rules, silver at the Challenger in Kazakhstan is no longer enough for Russians.

Pure quads

In the short program, Olympic vice-champion Alexandra Trusova confidently rolled back her "Lara" and overtook the representative of South Korea, Kim Yoo-jae, even without ultra-xi. The Russian received 77.39 points from the judges, which is much more than a month ago at the Challenger in Japan, where she eventually became the second (there was 74.92). And it was obviously more comfortable for her to perform in Kazakhstan.

— The support and atmosphere here are very cool. We went out for a warm—up, everyone was shouting, it was very nice," Trusova said after the short program.

But the issue of victory could not be considered settled. Kim Yoo Jae was only 1.40 points behind, and Sofya Samodelkina (an ex-Russian who now competes for Kazakhstan, came third in the short program with 69.45) could also count on strong support from the stands.

Trusova had almost no room for error. It became all the calmer after the news from the training session: the media reported that Alexandra performed the free skate cleanly. All that remained was to show the same level in front of the judges.

But the first gifts to the leader came even before it was released. Kim Yoo Jae started the free skate with a triple axel in a cascade with a triple sheepskin coat, but her element turned out to be nervous — the girl crashed into the side on the way out. The athlete's next triple axel also failed due to a bad landing. The Korean didn't fall apart, but it didn't work out perfectly — 133.21 for the free skate and 209.20 in total.

Samodelkina also performed with some problems: at the beginning of the program, her lutz broke. Instead, there is only a "butterfly". In addition, the judges gave her one point for a time violation. But Sofia nevertheless got together and, to the delight of the local audience, completed the performance perfectly, and scored even more than the Korean woman for the rental: 134.91 points. In total, she received 204.36 and took the bronze medal at the home tournament.

Trusova ended the evening. Alexandra started with a quadruple lutz — the jump turned out to be a mess, but then the skater calmed the hall almost immediately: she did a triple Rittberger and triple Salchow cleanly, and in the second half she did a cascade of triple lutz + triple sheepskin coat and a sequence of triple lutz + oiler + triple salchow + double axel and double axel.

In the final part of the program, to the music from "Very Strange Cases," the Russian added speed and emotion. She literally hovered over the ice and left no doubt about who would take the gold. The judges rated her arbitrary score at 148.62 points. According to the sum of the two programs, Trusova has 226.01. A confident victory with a serious lead over his pursuers.

"Sasha skated beautifully," Natalia Bestemyanova, Olympic champion and Honored figure skating coach of the USSR, told Izvestia. — It was not a very clean exit from the quadruple lutz, but a magnificent jump. Everything else was just perfect. Congratulations to Sasha and her coaching staff! This is amazing! It's a great success for her, and it's very important for Sasha. This triumph is important for figure skating as a whole. But first of all, we need to congratulate Sasha, this is her success.

Two more Russian figure skaters, Dina Khusnutdinova and Maria Zakharova, were in a difficult position after the short program. Both fell during the rentals, with Zakharova falling twice.

They tried to rectify the situation at random. Zakharova took a risk with a quadruple sheepskin coat, and the jump did not work out — she fell again, after which she included a couple more short-cuts in the list of blemishes and eventually scored only 129.48 points for the rental, becoming fifth from 187.77.

Khusnutdinova again built the program around triple axels. She performed the first one in a cascade with a double sheepskin coat, but the judges noted the short cut. And she fell off the second one. The Russian did not stop skating, but the starting mistakes hit the score too hard — 122.61 for the free skate, 185.70 in total, and only seventh place.