Russian Nationals. He finished 6th. Physically he doesn't seem to be in as good shape as he was this time last year. He looked tired. I'm not surprised that almost all the Russian skaters who went to Golden Spin did not have good results at Nationals. And Sasha for whatever reasons took 12 hrs to get to Zagreb and 26 hrs to return from Zagreb. He is fatigued.
But I'm more concerned about the fact that his coaches still don't allow him to try a quad in competition even though he personally wants to. He has to be allowed to try it, even if it's not good in practice. I've seen his quad in practice, so have other fans. It is quite inconsistent but he basically can do the jump. I'm not disappointed in Sasha because I know he gave whatever he could at Nationals. I understand how much he wants this. But I'm disappointed in his coaches.
SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMwWUqVO_n4
FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Btw41P1OGg
How do you gain confidence when your coach keeps changing his mind about whether to include a jump in competition? How do you gain confidence when your coach keeps changing your jump layout on the morning of the competition? And the one time this season that Sasha was allowed to try a quad in competition, he skated the rest of the program clean even though he popped the quad. So no, I do not agree that his coaches know what they are doing because the evidence says otherwise.I think the coaches know what they are doing. It is not enough to land a quad in practice once in a while. He has to have consistency and confidence to try it in a competition. A quad takes a lot out of a skater, and he has to be able to skate the whole program, whether he lands it or not. If the international judges get the impression that he can't do the quad, it creates a negative impression.
Now the younger skaters are doing 3 or 4 (even 5) quads in the LP. I hope Sasha has the athleticism to match that, long term. I do like his skating. I just hope that he can make it to worlds next year.
I think Kolyada will do well at worlds but I am concerned about whoever their #2 skater will be. Most likely Kovtun who is extremely inconsistent. He can finish 5-10 or even in high 20s. It will be tough to get 3 spots for Russia for next year. I would like to see Voronov get another chance but he pretty much blew his chances when he skated poorly in the LP at the Russian nationals.
Petrov's 2nd place SP (89.18): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHVn4ipIQ9USasha landed a clean 4T in his SP today at the Prizes of the Figure Skating Federation of St Petersburg competition.