Silver exit: how our skaters performed at the Trialeti Trophy in Batumi

The Trialeti Trophy Challenger series tournament, held in Batumi, ended without gold medals for our skaters. The closest to victory in women's single skating was Adelia Petrosyan, but the Russian was pushed from the first place by the representative of Estonia Nina Petrykina. Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, two of the country's most decorated active figure skaters, won their first international medal in four years. Read more about the vicissitudes of wrestling on the Georgian ice in the Izvestia article.

The battle for the top three

Following the results of the short program, the women formed the top four, which was closed by Adelia Petrosyan. Her performance under Show Must Go On, with the not-so-successful last spin, was rated 68.42 points by the judges. Anastasia Gubanova, the host of the tournament, was also in the top three (she had a score of 70.69 from Tolyatti), Anna Frolova from Russia (73.31), and Nina Petrykina, a two-time European champion, was in the lead (74.69).

In the free program, Petrosyan appeared as Arya Stark from the popular TV series Game of Thrones. The Russian was warmly received in Georgia: the cameramen kept showing fans with posters in her support, and after the performance, the stands exploded with applause. Adelia's fans had reason to rejoice.: she rolled back her program cleanly. The Russian performed solo triple lutz and salchow, a cascade of triple rittberger and double sheepskin coat, a sequence of triple flip and two double axels, solo triple flip and rittberger. The strict referees estimated the performance at 135.74. In total, this gave 204.16 and an intermediate first place.

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Immediately after her, Gubanova took to the ice, who, apparently, became agitated in front of her stands. Despite a good start, the European champion fell on the sequences and was unable to perform a clean lutz with a flip. At Kiss and Edge, a sad 23-year-old figure skater was comforted by a coach. Following the results of two performances, Gubanova earned 189.31 points and dropped below Petrosyan. Thus, Adelia knew in advance that she would receive a medal.

Frolova also failed to roll back cleanly. Anna performed a triple rittberger, a cascade of triple lutz and triple toe loop, landed a triple flip with a step-out, made a butterfly on another flip, showed a sequence of triple lutz and two double axels, as well as triple salchow. The result is 203.21 points. Yes, this is more than Gubanova's, but less than Petrosyan's. So only Petrykina could move Adelia. It turned out curiously: the gold was played by two figure skaters who performed in the image from "Game of Thrones".

The battle within the same series turned out to be powerful. Petrykina couldn't show a clean quad salchow, fell off the Rittberger, and performed a sequence very nervously in the second part, although the judges scored it. The triple lutz was also visually insecure.

Despite all the blemishes, Nina was ahead of Petrosyan: 205.94 against 204.16. Petrykina reacted to the announced results with her mouth open in surprise.

"Adelia did everything that was planned," Alexander Lakernik, Honorary Vice President of the International Skating Union (ISU), told Izvestia. — I didn't see from the program that there was a plan to execute three or three. She also made three or two at the box office. At this stage of preparation, such a plan was chosen. So, for now, Adelia is not ready for more, and that's ahead. And the task has been completed. But then we need to complicate the program.

With fours

As a result, the Russians did not have a single gold on this challenger. Our skaters took second place in all disciplines. In addition to Petrosyan, the dance duet Elizabeth Pasechnik won silver./Dario Cirizano, Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov, and Nikolai Ugozhaev.

In the free program, Ugozhaev performed a cascade of quadruple lutz and triple toe loop, as well as solo quadruple toe loop, flip and lutz. On the triple axel in the sequence with two doubles, the Russian made a mistake — instead of a full-fledged jump, he got a butterfly. Ugozhaev completed the program with a triple Lutz. This was enough to score 236.41 points and take the final second place.

— I'm glad that everything went well. The fours worked out, the axel didn't — okay, we'll keep working," Nikolai Ugozhaev said in an interview with Match TV. — Positive emotions. I'm glad it's over. It's very unusual to perform so late. It's been a long time since this happened... It added complexity, but it would work. You also need to be able to perform this way.

Georgian figure skater Nika Egadze won with a score of 262.65 points, while Estonian athlete Mikhail Selevko won the bronze medal with 227.74 points. Another representative of our country, Matvey Vetlugin, scored 219.94 points in two programs and took fourth place. In the free skate, the skater performed a quadruple lutz and flip, a triple toe loop (touched the ice with his hand), a cascade of triple Lutz and Rittberger, as well as a triple flip. With a blemish, I made a sequence of a triple lutz and two double axels.

In pair skating, Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava led by a significant margin after the short program. For her, the wards of Eteri Tutberidze received 80.01 points, while the Russians Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov, who took the second place, received only 74.00. Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov finished third with 73.487 points.

As a result, the Georgians did not allow their opponents to get closer — they won the tournament by a margin. At the same time, the home rental was not without a technical problem: during their performance, there were problems with the musical accompaniment for a few seconds. This did not stop the couple — she received 135.82 points from the judges (after two programs — 215.83) and took gold. In 2026, Metelkina and Berulava won the European Championship and became Olympic and World Cup silver medalists. Now the victory at the home challenger has been added to the piggy bank of achievements.

It's time for a world war: Petrosyan returns to the international ice after the Olympics

Ten Russians have entered the tournament in Batumi, and almost all are competing for medals.

The main struggle unfolded between the Russian participants for the second and third places on the podium. Chikmareva and Yanchenkov, who were higher than Mishina and Gallyamov after the short program, could not hold their position: Ekaterina had butterflies on her salchow and double sheepskin coat, and Matvey touched the ice with his hand in one of the elements. The pair received 122.63 points (a total of 196.63) and took only the third place.

Mishina and Gallyamov won silver. The 2021 World and 2022 European champions competed at an international tournament for the first time in four years and immediately found themselves on the podium, scoring 132.83 points (206.31) for the free program.

"With our return to the international arena, we managed to reach the level we showed a season ago," Gallyamov admitted in an interview in the mixed zone. — On the powerful side, with motivation. Even the mood before going on the ice and the performances themselves changed for some reason. I don't know how it happened, but something clicked in my head and everything returned to its place. What has changed in four years? We are like individuals, like people. Everyone has their own changes in life. A lot of time has passed, we got an education, Nastya got married. We are slowly moving forward not only in sports, but also in life and trying to adjust it.

Thus, our skaters won six medals in Batumi: four silver and two bronze. The best performers were the hosts of the tournament, the representatives of Georgia, who won three gold medals.