From Russia with love [#29]: Spring 2018 and beyond

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I hope A/R's omission is just a mistake...

I don't think it's a mistake that A/R are missing. When I was in Moscow I heard that Kristina wanted to stop competing and skate in shows. Alexei Rogonov apparently would have continued with her, but starting from scratch with a new partner now probably doesn't make sense. He has been doing seminars.
I'm going to miss them. I enjoyed their original style and I thought they had potential, but they lacked consistency. At least they had some good results, notably GP medals, and they got to go at the Olympic Games, Europeans and Worlds.
 
Sad to hear A/R are likely stopping; I had a very soft spot for them and for their work with Dmitriev. Hard to describe it, but they had a "je ne sais quoi", an attractive non-standard quality, both in presentation and choreo.
I am so glad they got to be Olympians and wish them a great future.
Now, some good Russian pair, please go to Dmitriev.
 
@Eislauffan Thanks for the update on Astakhova/Rogonov. I'll miss them too. They always brought something a little different to pairs skating, something original, and they were interesting to watch. If they're ending their career, I'm glad they were able to make it to the Olympics in their final season.

Agree! I was lucky enough to see them skate live back in 2015; they skated their "Shatter Me" program and I was instantly hooked. And Kristina always has the most gorgeous flexibility in the lifts! So it'll be sad if they're done; I was hoping they'd stick around for a few more years. But I suppose Alexei is almost 30.

No Kovtun?
It doesn't appear so, since he WD from Nationals.
 
Now, some good Russian pair, please go to Dmitriev.
Dmitriev has some good junior pairs. There was a rumour that Kudryavtseva/Spiridonov and Labazina/Rakhmanin moved from Pavlova to Dmitriev. Labazina/Rylov were 9th at the Russian junior nationals. Kudriavtseva/Spiridonov did not compete because they couldn’t qualify; she was injured in the first part of the season so they didn’t do any Russian cup competitions.

Dmitriv also had last season another junior pair- Belova/Bobrov. Not sure if this pairs still exist, because Bobrov has never stayed with any partner longer than one season. But even if they do exist, Bobrov aged out from juniors and Belova is not eligible to seniors, so they would be competing only within Russia. Personally I found this pair a bit creepy, skating to a love ballad ‘say something I am giving up on you’ when she was 12 and he was 20, but she was a tiny little thing and she can jump.
 
Dmitriev has some good junior pairs. There was a rumour that Kudryavtseva/Spiridonov and Labazina/Rakhmanin moved from Pavlova to Dmitriev.

Artur Dmitriev told me that he has about 7 teams now, but details need to be determined (if these teams stay together, who is really staying with him). Natalia Pavlova has left the school UOR 4 "Metchta" and returned to St. Petersburg where she has been offered a position in a new ice rink in Sestroeck (suburb of St. Petersburg). She apparently only asked Kudriavtseva/ Spiridonov to go with her, but they wanted to stay in Moscow. So Artur was first asked to take her teams. I believe Alexander Zaitsev also will stay and work with pairs in that school.
 
No Kovtun?

Maxim Kovtun is not on the national team as last season he showed no results and withdrew from Nationals sitting in 15th place or something like that. He now has to work his way up again if we wants to be back. If he is serious about his comeback, he needs to deliver. The situation in Russian men's skating has changed. Mikhail Kolyada and Dmitri Aliev are obviously the top guys and IMHO have the most potential, and then there is a group of other talented skaters that have shown some good results last season they can build on - Sergei Voronov, Alexei Erokhov, Alexander Samarin ... It won't be easy for Maxim. Also, I think the Federation is fed up with him and they have now enough others that are at the same level or better. I don't expect him to get any leniency anymore. But maybe that kind of strictness is what he needs to push himself and to prove that he is still there.
 
Artur Dmitriev told me that he has about 7 teams now, but details need to be determined (if these teams stay together, who is really staying with him). Natalia Pavlova has left the school UOR 4 "Metchta" and returned to St. Petersburg where she has been offered a position in a new ice rink in Sestroeck (suburb of St. Petersburg). She apparently only asked Kudriavtseva/ Spiridonov to go with her, but they wanted to stay in Moscow. So Artur was first asked to take her teams. I believe Alexander Zaitsev also will stay and work with pairs in that school.
Who else is coaching on the rink Sestroeck? Are there any other pair coaches?

I am curious about Dmitriev’s new pairs, but I have to say he has been quite underwhelming with juniors in the past few years, comparing with other coaches who managed to get their juniors up with their ranking. Maybe he was not paying them enough attention because he was concentrating on Astakhova/Rogonov. We will see what he will do now when he doesn’t have his senior pair.
 
Who is going to be the partner?
Isn't Martiusheva THE pairs girl in all the Russian shows now? She might be getting competition from her successor now.
i don't know. i only read few posters' comments that Astakhova will be skating in commercial shows and likely with another partner.
 
Who is going to be the partner?
Isn't Martiusheva THE pairs girl in all the Russian shows now? She might be getting competition from her successor now.
I think there are several shows, and there is a number of pairs in them. Maisuradze skates or skated in some shows, Ustimkina is doing shows now,....l.l wasn’t Bazarova in some show after she retired?
 
I don't know if Kristina is really trying to just keep her options open, but it seems very unfair to expect your partner to wait around for you to possibly come back after a season, unless it's due to injury. Pairs split up and skaters retire, and that's their right, but this kind of limbo makes no sense. Alexei turns 30 this week and he doesn't have all the time in the world to be sitting around waiting for her to possibly return. Meanwhile, the rest of the pairs field moves on and they lose any momentum they had (which wasn't much to begin with).

It's just so sad...there are so few charismatic men in pairs to begin, with and they're dropping like flies :wuzrobbed Morozov & Enbert are about as exciting as a bowl of oatmeal.
 
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