From Russia With Love [#38]: Fall/Winter 2020

[Sylvia]

Time to start a new thread with all the Russian entries for 2020 Rostelecom Cup (November 20-22 in Moscow RUS), as published on Oct. 1st:

Ladies:
Anastasiia GULIAKOVA (GP debut)
Alena KOSTORNAIA
Evgenia MEDVEDEVA
Sofia SAMODUROVA
Anna SHCHERBAKOVA
Alexandra TRUSOVA
Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA
2 TBA (RUS)

Men
Dmitri ALIEV
Artur DANIELIAN (GP debut)
Petr GUMENNIK (GP debut)
Makar IGNATOV
Mikhail KOLYADA
Andrei MOZALEV (GP debut)
Alexander SAMARIN
Roman SAVOSIN
TBA (not listed as RUS)

Ice Dance
Elizaveta KHUDAIBERDIEVA / Egor BAZIN RUS (new; GP debut for her)
Ksenia KONKINA / Pavel DROZD (GP debut)
Annabelle MOROZOV / Andrei BAGIN
Sofia SHEVCHENKO / Igor EREMENKO
Anastasia SKOPTCOVA / Kirill ALESHIN
Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV
Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN
Tiffani ZAGORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO

Pairs
Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitrii KOZLOVSKII
Anastasia MISHINA / Aleksandr GALLIAMOV
Apollinariia PANFILOVA / Dmitry RYLOV (GP debut)
Daria PAVLIUCHENKO / Denis KHODYKIN
Alina PEPELEVA / Roman PLESHKOV (GP debut)
TBA (RUS)

I was trying to figure out the candidates for the Rostelecom Cup pairs TBA.

Yasmina Kadyrova/Ivan Balchenko performed at the Senior test skates.
Kseniia Akhanteva/Valerii Kolesov (#1 9 on the ISU SB list; placed 2nd at Cup of Russia #1 & are still ISU Junior eligible)
Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev (#25 SB; won Cup of Russia #1 & are still ISU Junior eligible)
Anastasia Balalbanova/Alexey Svyatchenko (3rd at CoR #1)
Karina Akopova/Nikita Rakhmanin (new team; 4th at CoR #1)
Diana Mukhametzianova/Ilya Mironov (#20 SB; not at the test skates; still ISU Junior eligible)

There are a few newly created senior Russian pairs. I have no idea how good or not good they are, but some of them could be potentially decent.

Alina Solovieva/Elisei Ivanov - they were at St Peters test skates and scored pretty well for a new pair.
Victoria Vasilieva/Nikita Volodin - not likely to go to the GP, she is new to pairs
Veronika Varentsova/ Dmitri Bushlanov – will they skate for Belarus?
Maria Pavlova/Ilia Spiridinov - they will compete in a week in Moser’s competition, so we will see how good they are.
Valeria Ponosova/ Dmitri Yalin – They probably split up already because she is again on Russian ice partner search
Lina Kudriavtseva /Roman Zaporozhets - they will compete in a week in Moser’s competition, so we will see how good they are.

Note: Tarasova/Morozov were assigned to Skate America but plan on remaining in Russia in order to prepare for the Russian Cup series, according to Trankov on Oct. 1.

Thanks to @Ka3sha for this list of upcoming competitions, posted in the Kiss & Cry section:

Calendar of the events, qualifiers to Nationals in bold https://fsrussia.ru/calendar.html

October:
Oct, 10-13. Russian Cup event II (Moscow)
Oct, 13-16. "Panin Kolomenkin Memorial" (St Petersburg)
Oct, 20-22. "Yuzhny Briese" (Sochi)
Oct, 23-27. Russian Cup event III (Kazan)

November:
Nov, 4-7. "Dedicated to 100th anniversary of Udmurtiya" (Izhevsk) - only juniors
Nov, 8-12. Russian Cup event IV (Sochi)
Nov, 9-11. "S. Volkov Memorial" (Moscow) - only singles
Nov, 15-17. "Alexei Mishin Cup" (Belgorod)
Nov, 18-21. "Mordovian Ornament" (Saransk)
Nov, 18-22. "Rostelecom Cup" (Moscow) - GP event
Nov, 24-26. "Meridien of Tyumen" (Tyumen)
Nov, 27-29. "Zhiguli" (Togliatti) - without pairs

December:
Dec, 5-8. Russian Cup event V (Moscow)
Dec, 22-27. 2021 Russian Nationals (Chelyabinsk)

 

[Jeschke]

Thanks for another try bringing RUS skating thread back to RUS skating news.
Tic toc tic toc....

 

[Sylvia]

Check out the musical talents of St. Petersburg skaters Kolyada, Samodurova & Gumennik : https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7Yz8op5ed/

 

[rfisher]

Check out the musical talents of St. Petersburg skaters Kolyada, Samodurova & Gumennik : https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7Yz8op5ed/

Gumennik is a multi-talented kid who is apparently brilliant as well.

 

[Sylvia]

This 11-minute video interview with Zagorski & Guerreiro was uploaded on Golden Skate's YT channel on Sept. 26:

Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerreiro: "We're all in this together"

After the Russian test skates, Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerreiro talk with Tatjana Flade about what they feel they have improved on the most, how they ...

www.youtube.com

 

[Tinami Amori]

Sunday gym at Khrystalniy...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF6liDMlVVz/

 

[muffinplus]

Valieva is still doing Russian Cup Stage 2 next week?

 

[Tinami Amori]

Valieva is still doing Russian Cup Stage 2 next week?

I have not heard/read that she eliminated or not participating. But i did read that one of the Junior girls from Davydov's group (Samodelkina?) will also participate. We will know the final list of participants the day they show up for practice, because now anything can happen given the conditions.

 

[DobrinFan]

Figure Skating Schools Subordinated to Moskomsport Closed Due to Coronavirus

As the Moscow figure skating federation told "SE", from October 5, skating rinks and sports facilities under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Sports Department will be closed. Thus, in figure skating, this means limitations in the work of Sambo-70, Moskvich, Megasport and most other institutions. At the same time, representatives of the national teams can continue to work on the same ice.

This is how they work at Moskvich, said school coach Victoria Butsaeva: -

"We now have six people on the ice, only national team members. Among them are Murashov, Yablokov, we are preparing for the Russian Cup. On Erokhov we are solving the issue, he was announced this year for "Sambo-70". The school is officially closed, but national team members are allowed to train. The director said that work should resume on October 19, but you yourself understand that this is not certain," - said Butsayeva.

Школы фигурного катания, подведомственные Москомспорту, закрыли из-за коронавируса

Как рассказали «СЭ» в московской федерации фигурного катания, с 5 октября закрываются катки и спортивные объекты, подведомственные Департаменту спорта Москвы.

m.sport-express.ru

 

[hanca]

Wow, so those two Moscow Russian Cups are going to be cancelled? If will it proceed, if the national team members are allowed to train? But then there won’t be too many skaters at the Russian cups, if only the national team members are training.

 

[DobrinFan]

They haven't canceled any competitions in Moscow yet. Don't know how this affects those not on the national/Moscow teams for the next 2 cups. They are only 3 weeks apart, the "vacation" is at least 2 weeks long

The Moscow ice rink "Khrustalny", where the group of figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze conducts classes, continues to work in a limited mode after the decree of the mayor of the city, Sergei Sobyanin, to tighten measures related to the pandemic.This was announced by a source

Earlier, Sobyanin signed a decree according to which from 5 to 18 October holidays are introduced for students of educational institutions, the powers and functions of the founder of which are carried out by the executive authorities of Moscow. These are institutions providing primary, basic and secondary general education, additional education, as well as sports training. "Khrustalny" belongs to one of these institutions - the center of sports and education "Sambo-70". On Wednesday, TASS, citing a document from the Moscow Sports Department, reported that members of the Russian and Moscow national teams will continue to train and participate in competitions according to an individual plan, the rest will be sent on vacation, and online classes should be organized for them.

"Members of the national teams of Moscow and Russia are currently continuing to train," said the agency's source.

Группа Тутберидзе продолжает тренировки в "Хрустальном", несмотря на каникулы

Как сообщил ТАСС источник, занятия продолжают члены сборных Москвы и России

tass.ru

 

[taz'smum]

They haven't canceled any competitions in Moscow yet. Don't know how this affects those not on the national/Moscow teams for the next 2 cups. They are only 3 weeks apart, the "vacation" is at least 2 weeks long

Yep, Tiff says nothing has changed for her and as far as she knows the Moscow Cup comp is going ahead.

 

[DobrinFan]

Yep, Tiff says nothing has changed for her and as far as she knows the Moscow Cup comp is going ahead.

Yeah but this affects Erokhov and people like him who are not on the National team practicing in Moscow. Do they take the rest of the week off and show up on Friday and compete on Sat/Sun? Juniors would be off the ice for almost a week. What if they were preparing for Cup 3 in 3 weeks but now have at least 2 weeks off? There are a limited amount of spots at the Cups and not everyone can go to Cup 4 or 5. Luckily so far, it only affects Moscow.

 

[hanca]

They haven't canceled any competitions in Moscow yet. Don't know how this affects those not on the national/Moscow teams for the next 2 cups. They are only 3 weeks apart, the "vacation" is at least 2 weeks long

Yes, but I still can’t see how that can work. Unless they move the events out of Moscow and send Moscow’s skaters to train in the training centres like they did in the summer. If they let compete only the skaters who are on the national team, there won’t be many competitors, considering there is only 6 skaters/teams on the team in each discipline plus a few more in reserve. Split them among four remaining events and you have roughly three or four skaters/pairs/couples per competition in each discipline. But how can skaters who are not on the national team compete, if they can’t practice? And if they don’t compete at the Russian cups, how can they qualify for the nationals? Which means that only the skaters on the team would be able to qualify for the nationals?

 

[hanca]

Kostiukovich/Briukhanov will be competing at the Russian cup 2!
I am so curious to see them!

 

[Tinami Amori]

Yeah but this affects Erokhov and people like him who are not on the National team practicing in Moscow.

Alexey Erohov skated at the "Sambo-70" 50th Anniversary Competition, a week a go, and did so poorly that a two-weeks break will not make that much difference...

Алексей Ерохов КП МС (вне конкурса) турнир в честь 50-летия Самбо-70 2020

54.50 (20.84 + 33.66)

www.youtube.com

 

[Tinami Amori]

This made the big news this morning, and is published in several major sports publications.
"Trusova will not work with Rozanov. Her coaches Mikhailov, Pluschenko, Alekseev". There are several versions of this announcement, but here is one of them.

Трусова прекратила тренировки у Розанова, с Волковым фигуристка не занимается

Спортсменка перешла в академию "Ангелы Плющенко" в мае вместе с тренером Сергеем Розановым, до этого оба числились в группе Этери Тутберидзе

tass.ru

Insiders for quite a while were saying that Trusova and mostly her parents are furious that Rozanov assisted Kostornaya with her transfer to Pluschenko. Few people noted that Trusova's father "had an argument with Pluschenko in high tones". Trusova came to Pluschenko and was promised to be "the star of the group", instead of "one of the stars", and she and her folks had no idea that Pluschenko also invited Kostornaya and other girls. They are upset that Rozanov was the one to push Kostornaya's transfer to Pluschenko (when she called him from the training camp in Novogorsk). Trusova transferred partially because of Rozanov who was to work on her jumps. Now they are not talking or seeing one another.

Both girls are now training at separate times (Pluschenko so far has only 1 ice rink, not the 2 rinks he promised them).

Here are some articles (in Russian) on the subject. Take your pick.

Трусова недовольна академией Плющенко. Отказывается работать с Розановым и психует из-за Косторной

Александра хотела быть единственной звездой школы.

sport.business-gazeta.ru

"Trusova is not happy with Angels of Pluschenko; refuses to work with Rozanov, and is having a fit over Kostornaya".

Не единственная, а только одна из: почему Александра Трусова недовольна Евгением Плющенко

Бомба набирающего обороты конфликта может рвануть в Казани

www.business-gazeta.ru

"Not the only, but one of several. Why Trusova is not happy with Pluschneko".

Трусова перестала работать с тренером Розановым

Трусова перестала работать с тренером Розановым

www.championat.com

"Trusova no longer works with Rozanov".

 

[Tinami Amori]

Current/today's list of singles participants for the upcoming Russia Cup/Moscow event.

The event starts October 10th, so the list can still change.

Ladies
Valieva, Trusova, Medvedeva, Frolova, Talalaikina, Konstantinova, Nugumanova, Saranovskaya, Sidorova, Onichenko.

Men
Gumennik, Shulepov, Semenenko, Varakin, Danieliyan, Erohov, Mukhortov, Samarin.

 

[ana]

Good luck all! I can't wait to see them skating.

 

[muffinplus]

That's a really strong ladies field compared to Stage 1

 

[Bigbird]

This made the big news this morning, and is published in several major sports publications.
"Trusova will not work with Rozanov. Her coaches Mikhailov, Pluschenko, Alekseev". There are several versions of this announcement, but here is one of them.

Трусова прекратила тренировки у Розанова, с Волковым фигуристка не занимается

Спортсменка перешла в академию "Ангелы Плющенко" в мае вместе с тренером Сергеем Розановым, до этого оба числились в группе Этери Тутберидзе

tass.ru

Insiders for quite a while was saying that Trusova and mostly her parents are furious that Rozanov assisted Kostornaya with her transfer to Pluschenko. Few people noted that Trusova's father "had an argument with Pluschenko in high tones". Trusova came to Pluschenko and was promised to be "the star of the group", instead of "one of the stars", and she and her folks had no idea that Pluschenko also invited Kostornaya and other girls. They are upset that Rozanov was the one to push Kostornaya's transfer to Pluschenko (when she called him from the training camp in Novogors). Trusova transferred partially because of Rozanov who was to work on her jumps. Now they are not talking or seeing one another.

Both girls are no training at separate times (Pluschenko so far has only 1 ice rink, not the 2 rinks he promised them).

Here are some articles (in Russian) on the subject. Take your pick.

Трусова недовольна академией Плющенко. Отказывается работать с Розановым и психует из-за Косторной

Александра хотела быть единственной звездой школы.

sport.business-gazeta.ru

"Trusova is not happy with Angels of Pluschenko; refuses to work with Rozanov, and is having a fit over Kostornaya".

Не единственная, а только одна из: почему Александра Трусова недовольна Евгением Плющенко

Бомба набирающего обороты конфликта может рвануть в Казани

www.business-gazeta.ru

"Not the only, but one of several. Why Trusova is not happy with Pluschneko".

Трусова перестала работать с тренером Розановым

Трусова перестала работать с тренером Розановым

www.championat.com

"Trusova no longer works with Rozanov".

Sounds like Kostornaia is the more reasonable one? Sounds like her parents are rather snobbish? Does this mean she will go back to Eteri? Did her parents think that Plushenko could only have one star? Rather ridiculous, IMHO.

 

[thvu]

So maybe it wasn’t the coaching situation that really hampered Trusova last season. Maybe it was her parents and their seeming pettiness.

I for one thought Trusova looked great at the test skates and was really impressed at the improvements she made with Plushenko’s team. Why would they jeopardize this? Insanity.

 

[hanca]

Sounds like Kostornaia is the more reasonable one? Sounds like her parents are rather snobbish? Does this mean she will go back to Eteri? Did her parents think that Plushenko could only have one star? Rather ridiculous, IMHO.

I guess it is hard to make proper opinion when we don’t know the all info. What exactly it was that Trusova was promised to persuade her to move, what was the relationship between Trusova and Kostornaya before... on one side, one can’t expect to be the only student of any coach, on the other hand, if she was promised that she would be the student number one and get most of the attention, and now she would be sharing this top dog status with a person she might have wanted to run away from, that would be a completely different situation.

I don’t think it is so uncommon that the top skaters don’t want to train with their closest competitors. It is only Tutberidze who is trying to persuade people how everyone in her school is one big and happy family. (She usually spills the beans only when the student decides to leave. Before that, everyone is each other’s BFF). Virtue/Moir also struggled to train with Davis/White, Yagudin also left Mishin to get away from Pluschenko, Medvedeva struggled to continue to train together with Zagitova, and Zagitova recently told the skating show that she will work there only without Medvedeva. They wanted both Medvedeva and Zagitova, she told them that she won’t work with Medvedeva, and therefore they were forced to choose. So I am not surprised that Trusova was probably quite relieved that by moving to Pluschenko, she got rid of daily competitions with Scherbakova and Kostornaya, and then would have been upset when Kostornaya moved to the same rink.

 

[rfisher]

So maybe it wasn’t the coaching situation that really hampered Trusova last season. Maybe it was her parents and their seeming pettiness.

I for one thought Trusova looked great at the test skates and was really impressed at the improvements she made with Plushenko’s team. Why would they jeopardize this? Insanity.

Her parents have always been the driving force. They bribe her with dogs. She got the Poodle for landing a 3A. She got the husky for the quads. I guess Tina gets new dresses for something. They've been doing that for years.

 

[Wyliefan]

I wonder if the rest of this Olympic cycle (if we still are in an Olympic cycle) will just be Russian girls bouncing back and forth between coaches.

 

[hanca]

Her parents have always been the driving force. They bribe her with dogs. She got the Poodle for landing a 3A. She got the husky for the quads. I guess Tina gets new dresses for something. They've been doing that for years.

I don’t think that’s quite correct to say that her parents have been driving force. Yes, her parents gave her a dog for landed 3A, but if she didn’t want it herself, no amount of promises would make a person land 3A. Landing a 3A is something else than landing a single toe loop. It involves a lot of effort to get there, hundreds of unsuccessful attempts that include painful falls, a real determination to get there, lots of concentration, and patience... It needs someone REALLY WANT IT, to get there. I can’t see how any parents could make their child go through that if the child didn’t want it himself/herself.

 

[Tinami Amori]

I don’t think it is so uncommon that the top skaters don’t want to train with their closest competitors.

Except one thing, when they came to Eteri's group after their two-weeks trial, she made it clear that one of the aspects of her training is to uphold daily competition atmosphere, and that's what partially leads to success. They accepted it them.

I will stand on the side of Trusova this time. Kostornaya always had a difficult personality, but after winning almost everything last season, she became impossible, acting like a Queen Bee, expecting to get away with a lot of b.s. towards other skaters, including Trusova. Trusova was always into her-self, competed with her own goals, first of all, and "other girls" second.

Kostornaya always wanted "what others have" from beauty elements to training issues. This is my guess, not a fact or an "inside": I would not be surprised if Kostornaya went to Pluschenko partially because "she wanted what Trusova had".

Trusova was promised a lot, just to name one she was promissed foreign choreographers and advisors. Instead she got Rozanov's programme, and Kostornaya got SLB's. Etc...

Zagitova recently told the skating show that she will work there only without Medvedeva. They wanted both Medvedeva and Zagitova, she told them that she won’t work with Medvedeva, and therefore they were forced to choose.

Zagitova "never told" such thing. It started as a rumor and remains a rumor without any even slightest prof or even "an inside". First there was a rumor that "Eteri was against Med being a co-host" and that did not work out as a "fact". So now they tried a new rumor that "Zag did not want Med as a co-host"...

 

[Bigbird]

Her situation at Plushenko is better than anything she will have at Eteri every day of the week. Plushenko has bent over backwards to accommodate both. What do her parents have to fear in Kostornaia? Kostornaia knows she's not liked because of her character. She's not looking for any favours, she's not looking for Olympic Gold, she only wants to make the team. Trusova's parents would do well to make the best of her current situation, Kostornaia is the least of her competitors. There are Katieva, Valieva, Scherbakova, etc and the list goes on.

All this huffing and puffing on the part of the parents could result in Kostornaia getting the best of Rozanov and leaving their daughter in the dust.

Edit: Trusova has one shot at the Olympics. So they better not mess this up, there are other young skaters already easily landing triple axels and quad lutzs and I don't know if mummy and daddy are rewarding them with pet poodles.

 

[hanca]

Except one thing, when they came to Eteri's group after their two-weeks trial, she made it clear that one of the aspects of her training is to uphold daily competition atmosphere, and that's what partially leads to success. They accepted it them.

Well, maybe when they were novice or junior girls, she didn’t mind. There is a difference between being even too young for JGP and skating with girls of similar standard, or being in the top three girls in the world and daily train with your closest competitors. There would not be as much pressure in the pre-JGP level, but of course immense pressure when being in the top of the world. And things change, so if Trusova suddenly decided that she has no reason to put herself under unnecessary stress and pressure, who could blame her? The competitions are stressful enough, who would want to have a mini competition every day at the rink?

 

[Tinami Amori]

And things change, so if Trusova suddenly decided that she has no reason to put herself under unnecessary stress and pressure, who could blame her? The competitions are stressful enough, who would want to have a mini competition every day at the rink?

Trusova's 2 main reason for moving: for her - jumps, for her parents - lack of big sponsors and declining prize money.
Kostornaya was an annoyance to her perhaps, and Trusova did not appreciate Kostornaya "following her to share what she's got". But it was not the main reason for leaving.