The medal fight in women’s singles took place between Kamila Valieva, Adelia Petrosyan and Sofia Muravyova. After the short program, the athletes were separated by 3 and a half points, making it even more interesting to watch the result of the competition.
The first of the trio to hit the ice of Traktor Arena was Sofia Muravyova. A student of the academy of two-time Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko stood one step away from the podium last year, but this time fate was more favorable to him. The figure skater cleanly executed triple jumps, correctly executed the triple Lutz + triple toe loop step, and added a maximal set of steps and spins to the whole thing.
According to the results of the skating, Muravyova received 161.07 points – in the two-day competition her score was 239.40 points, which allowed her to top the table ahead of the skating of Petrosyan and Valieva.
Two students of Russia’s valuable coach Eteri Tutberidze closed the women’s singles tournament; Petrosyan was the first to achieve this. The 16-year-old athlete fell off a quadruple flip, but then cleanly performed a quad toe loop + double toe loop followed by a quadruple toe loop, closing out almost all questions. Adelia’s turns and steps also reached level four and the judges awarded her 167.47 points for her free program.
Petrosyan took first place with a total of 246.53 points before Kamila Valieva’s performance.
Valieva closed her free program – the 17-year-old athlete made a mistake in the first ultra-si element by slightly twisting her quad sheepskin coat, so she could not bring her leg into the skate and ended up on the ice. Everything that happened next was executed flawlessly; steps, sequence, turns and step sequence. However, due to a big mistake made at the beginning, it was possible to regain the points that could have been received for a clean quad toe loop only with another ultra-c element that was not in Kamila’s program.
The last 156.14 points of the free program did not allow Valieva to count on anything other than bronze. His total score across the two programs was 237.99 points.
At the press conference held after the performances, Camila explained the fall of her four-piece sheepskin coat with the difficult transition of adolescence.
“For me, this is the fourth Russian championship, the second in Chelyabinsk. Lots of flashbacks. If we compare the first championship in Kazan with the current one, it is a little less than half a step, but still forward. Even though he wasn’t very good, he did his best. But there are difficulties in terms of both height and weight. The weight does not affect me much, but it is putting pressure on me now,” RIA Novosti quotes Valieva as saying.
Promising that he will not quit professional sports despite the current difficulties, the skater said that he wants to skate at the highest level for many more years.
“Everything in the short program was as good as it could be right now. I am slowly progressing at my own pace, I need to not lose courage, draw conclusions and continue working. An example for me is Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. At the last tournament in Chelyabinsk, I was 13-14 years old and I remember him saying: “This is my 12th or 13th Russian Championship.” And I’m almost that old! So that’s the goal,” Valieva concluded.
The winner of the competition, Adelia Petrosyan, also experienced mixed emotions.
“The emotions are very different. I am surprised, sad and very happy. Why are you upset? “The goal was to collect a quadruple somersault and a quadruple toe loop, but only two toe loops appeared,” Adelia Petrosyan said in an interview after the results were announced.
The Russian Championship will officially end on December 24. Award ceremonies and shows will be held on Sunday.
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Source: Gazeta
Gregory Robert is a sports aficionado and a writer for “Social Bites”. He provides in-depth coverage of the latest sporting events and trends, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the world of sports.