2021 Russian Nationals Ladies FS

Now that I’ve calmed down in my admiration of the top 4...

There were so many fabulous skates from these ladies:

Nugumanova - classical beauty in every sense! Two exquisite programs... music, hair, costumes. In my pantheon!

Frolova, exquisite Ezio Bosso LP

Onischenko - that Asturias guitar routine

Talalaikina - utter GLAMOUR and power combined!

...the most fun, in my book: Samodurova’s MAKEBA! Ooo-eee-ooo!!! Great new costume, too. (And a big “spasibo” to her for skating her SP without that hex sign or whatever on her forehead!)

Edited to add: All hail Empress Tuk. In most other National championships, in any other country, she’d be the winner.
 
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topaz said:
Plushy needs to get stronger in politics because even I think Trusova was underscored a bit technically. Her SP in particular should have been higher.
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I think no real international competitions really hurt them this year. Every competition they went into appeared to have a strong Eteri bias. If all of the ladies had been able to compete internationally, I think their GOE would have been slightly more in-line with each other. Where I would criticize Plush is not making sure Trusova was prepared to hit all of the bonus requirements during the RC series - that would have raised her scores during the series and eliminated some of the perception of her weakness.

Today, Anna was my favorite, followed by Trusova. I still don't "get" Valieva, but her 4T's were super impressive!
 
What a LP competition! Just out of this world 😱
As much as I did not agree with the SP placemens, today they got it right 😁
I was also crying after Anna S had finished her skate. I looove when there are emotions and not just technical content and this skate had it all. I cannot believe she delivered that well after Trusova and Kamila'a phenomenal programs. Kudos to her and it was touching to see the whole coaching team so emotional ❤
I am sure Trusova was looking for that gold medal but for me, it was an achievement that she skated clean with a more polished LP than earlier in the season. I hope that she will gain in consistency and move into the olympic season in a good place. I hope she gets that 3A to work out well at some point.
Kamila was just fantastic today. What amaze me the most with Eteris girls is the attack they generally have and today, there was absolutely no hesitation from Kamila. I wonder how the dynamic will work out between her and Anna S next season but I suppose, Eteri has learned something from her Olympic experience with Evgenia and Alina.
I will not count Kostornaia out yet but even if she regain her old form (domething that I really hope she will), I do not know if it will be enough with 2 3A's in the LP to keep up with a 2-3 quad program from the others..
Nugu should also be proud of herself at these Nationals. I had not seen much from her before but what a beautiful skater. She had well composed programs and gorgeous spins and extension.
 
A few more thoughts (Will have more after watching group 1 and part of group 2).

Samodurova is a fun skater to watch when she skates to the right music. I didn’t care for her SP music.

Maiia Khromikh’s Red violin brought back to my mind Michelle Kwan’s superb LP at the 2000 worlds. That didn’t help Khromikh today but she could become a very elegant skater with her long limbs. She is only 14 now, so it is unfair to compare her with a seasoned skater like Kwan.

Trusova is such a cutie! Love her smile and her giggles in interviews. I am so proud of her for skating so well today!

Nugumanova is a lovely skater. Really liked ber skate and her packaging.

I was so proud of Liza Tuk! Mishin looked very worried when she was skating. I am sure her health played a role in the two missed 3As. She performed to the music really well. My hats off to her.

I was not really into Valieva but now I may be. Her Bolero is the best by a singles skater IMO. Her two quads were superb.
I would have placed Trusova a little higher than her. It was a great performance by KamilaValieva though. She gave away nothing.

Still can’t like Usacheva, but that may be because she skated after three fantastic performances. She is only fourteen. She will get those quads eventually.

I don’t have enough words to express my admiration for Anna Shcherbakova. That was a phenomenal performance after a sickness! Her coaches cried because they must have known how sick she had been and yet she delivered a monster performance.
 
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Cherub721 said:
Wait I just realized that since 3 skaters are not age eligible, Nugu is in the top 3 of the seniors, which is really a tremendous accomplishment for her, and if there were a European championship she'd have a shot at going(probably in a battle against Tuk and Kost). This has been such a great nationals for her.
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Kostornaia has not skated that well this year. She has not even tried the 3A which worked so well for her last year! She is still very good but I think Tuk and Nugumanovanay may have a chance if they have a competition to decide on one spot.
 
Sylvia said:
I loved Nugumanova's FS to Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker that she skated the past 2 seasons.
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Sylvia knows what's up.

Was there any explanation as to why Trusova wasn't attempting 4T here? I feel like that has been her most consistent and prettiest quad.
 
rfisher said:
Maiia is the spare at Sambo-70. They have others coming to replace her. Which is too bad for her because she's a good skater.
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No Maiia is not quite a "spare". She is part of the Junior trio, intended for the Junior events podiums: Valieva, Usacheva, Khromykh.
 
her grace said:
64,000 people watching. Thanks, Russia!
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That's probably on youtube with english commentary by Ted. There are several millions watching it on Russia Channel 1 (watching stats not out yet, but it should be in millions. Rostelecom was 2.2 mils).
 
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hanca said:
It looks Nugumanova finally got herself on the Russian national team. Unless they give one spot to Kostornaya and Nugumanova will be again in reserve?

And Tuktamysheva, with her gold GP medal, will she be off the national team?
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There is one more competition ahead, Russian Cup Finals. This year the Feds plan to use it, for Team determination, in addition to Nationals results.
 
Vash01 said:
I did not like it that they invited the whole Eteri team, including Usacheva (4th place) for the interview. Anna and Kamila deserved it of course. They should have invited Trusova who also skated great and won the bronze. It would have been more appropriate to interview all three medallists than to invite only Eteri’s skaters. I a, not even a Eteri hater nut it really bothered me.
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They did not exactly invite Eteri Team for interview instead of three medalists. It happened accidentally. They intended to interview each place holder individually, like they usually do. They started with Anna, Kamila was next and she happened to be standing close.

The interviewer started asking Anna about her health condition, and the rumors that she was feeling so ill that she was going to withdraw from FS.

The interviewer noticed that Eteri, Gleikh, Dudakov standing near, and called them to step into the camera view.

It led to interviewer pulling in Kamila from left, and Dudakov pulling in Usacheva from his right. The whole group was in the picture, so the next few questions became "more general" and not about Anna and Kamila. If anything, it was Kamila who was robbed .. :).

Interesting moment from that interview:
By the way Tutberidze said that they were ready to pull Anna out of competition at any moment. They even intended to do so last night, and to convince Anna to withdraw got her parents involved, and they tried to convince Anna to withdraw. But Anna wanted to skate no matter what, and did.
 
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Tinami Amori said:
There is one more competition ahead, Russian Cup Finals. This year the Feds plan to use it, for Team determination, in addition to Nationals results.
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Yes, but in the past those who did well at the Russian cup, they were placed in the reserve team, not in the main team.
 
Sylvia said:
Trusova's post-FS interview (with her BIG bear beside her!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJCJCESePdg
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That's quite an interview..... even if she is smiling. Just few details.
  • she said "these Nationals are for the purpose of determining the World Team, so every one must come and skate, regardless of issues."
  • she does not "sound" happy about doing only 2 quads in FS. She is hinting that she wanted to do more, but was prohibited. She kept repeating "i want and will do more quads". When asked i she prefers to skate clean with only two quads, or try for more quads and risk falling, she replied "I would rather do more quads".

Pluschenko, in this competition, got her exactly back where Eteri wanted her to be (until she becomes more solid): 2 quads only and no 3A yet. Now he has a discussion coming up between him and Trusova's family, how many quads... :). Sasha came a full circle back where she was with TeamTutberidze, even too her mandatory 3rd place... :-)
 
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Tinami Amori said:
They did not exactly invite Eteri Team for interview instead of three medalists. It happened accidentally. They intended to interview each place holder individually, like they usually do. They started with Anna, Kamila was next and she happened to be standing close.

The interviewer started asking Anna about her health condition, and the rumors that she was feeling so ill that she was going to withdraw from FS.

Anna said "my coaches can tell you better about this situation". The interviewer noticed that Eteri, Gleikh, Dudakov standing near, and called them to step into the camera view.
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hanca said:
Yes, but in the past those who did well at the Russian cup, they were placed in the reserve team, not in the main team.
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Actually not lately. Do you remember Worlds 2019, to which Medvedeva was sent and not Tukramysheva, strictly based on the Russian Cup Final results? Russian Feds can use Russian Cup Finals results if they chose to.
 
Are there links to the Barton broadcast online too? I watched the Russian broadcast for Anna S (still catching up on everything else) but I'm curious to see what he said.
 
mjb52 said:
Are there links to the Barton broadcast online too? I watched the Russian broadcast for Anna S (still catching up on everything else) but I'm curious to see what he said.
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The link in Post #1 in this thread still works.
 
Tinami Amori said:
Actually not lately. Do you remember Worlds 2019, to which Medvedeva was sent and not Tukramysheva, strictly based on the Russian Cup Final results? Russian Feds can use Russian Cup Finals results if they chose to.
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Kadyrova/Balchenko were second at the Russian cup final last year and went straight to the reserve team. Do you have any examples where skaters qualified from Russian cup final to the main team? Unless they had some international medals from that season? For example, I can imagine Kostornaya being able to qualify to the next season main team based on her results at Russian cup final, with her silver medal from the Russian GP event, but I would struggle to understand Medvedeva or Zagitova to qualify to the main team.
 
hanca said:
Kadyrova/Balchenko were second at the Russian cup final last year and went straight to the reserve team. Do you have any examples where skaters qualified from Russian cup final to the main team? Unless they had some international medals from that season? For example, I can imagine Kostornaya being able to qualify to the next season main team based on her results at Russian cup final, with her silver medal from the Russian GP event, but I would struggle to understand Medvedeva or Zagitova to qualify to the main team.
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There is a lot of "ifs" and assumptions in your post. First of all, Zagitova is not planning to qualify for anything this time, or skate competitively for the rest of the season.

Second, I gave you an example where Tuktamusheva, who was ill during Rus. Nat. in 2019, was skating against Medvedeva, in the Russian Cup Finals for the 3rd spot on the World Team.

This year, the Russian Feds are willing to make even more exceptions due to "unusual year" situation. They will let in Kostornaya, Medvedeva (if she is ready), Sinitsina (if she is ready), or anyone who they think can "win a medal for Russia" in 3rd spot on the team.
 
Talalaikina is so dynamic: there's no music that's too big for her. She schooled half the men who can't keep up with their bombastic movie scores. But I have no idea what she was listening to in her head between the first and third pieces of music, because it wasn't a waltz.

So happy for Scherbakova! Beautiful interpretation end-to-end, and those quads were so light and wonderfully integrated into the program.
 
We had a winter storm here last night and our power went out around 3:00 a.m. We also lose internet so I didn't know what was happening with the ladies until we got internet back around 4:00 p.m. I just read the PBP and watched the video clips to see what happened to Anna (my favorite of all the Russian ladies) and was so happy to see she pulled it together with such an incredible performance after she could barely catch a breath after the short. Crying here. :wuzrobbed
 
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