Perm period: Slyusarenko's students caused a sensation at the Russian Grand Prix

The first stage of the Russian Grand Prix in Kazan was marked by the triumph of the Perm school of figure skating: Pavel Slyusarenko's students took the first two places in the sports pairs competition, leaving behind the winners of international tournaments. There were surprises in other sports as well: Kamilla Nelyubova beat Anna Frolova, and Evgeny Semenenko confidently won in men's single skating. The tournament showed that Russian competitions do not lose in class even after the return of some of the leaders to the international arena. At the same time, the question remains: will it be possible to keep the strongest skaters at the domestic starts?

Nelyubova beat Frolova

The battle of Camilla Nelyubova and Anna Frolova for victory at the first stage of the Russian Grand Prix and the unspoken status of "the best after Trusova" ended with the victory of the first. After the short program, Anna was in the lead with an advantage of almost four points, but in the free skate, Camilla did not give her a chance, performing a magnificent triple axel. Her opponent, who was the last to enter the ice, faltered and fell from a triple flip.

Nelyubova, who has long been called the most underrated figure skater in the country, deservedly won her first major victory on the national stage. Camilla took an important step forward — she proved that she is capable of winning and leaving behind the top skaters of the national team. Her score of 217.75 points is the second this season among Russians after Alexandra Trusova. Frolova was the second in the international arena after Sasha, with 207.86 points.

Thus, the ward of the young coach Daria Gureeva becomes one of Trusova's main rivals at the Russian championship, at least nominally. At least Nelyubova has two triple axels, which can be contrasted with one (so far) quadruple lutz of the Beijing silver medalist.

In the free skate, Frolova lost even to Ksenia Sinitsina. The figure skater "Angelov Plushenko" gave a great performance and won the bronze medal.

Sofia Muravyeva, who returned to the ice, took only 10th place. In the free skate, she had a fall and a butterfly, although there is still a gap at the end of the tunnel.

Semenenko defeated his competitors

If after the first day Evgeny Semenenko's leadership was in doubt — Andrey Mozalev was very close and lost in many ways because of the rating - then in the free skate Evgeny did not give his competitors a chance.

After the grades were announced, Sergey Dudakov sincerely shook Andrey's hand, but Mozalyov was separated from the winner by almost 44 points. He has an interesting free program that starts with choreography, which is a rather rare solution. There are also references to the short one. However, on Sunday, Andrey made a fall, risked doing a quadruple jump at the end and made a mistake on several more jumps.

Semenenko made no mistakes. Hence the well—deserved 296 points, slightly more than at the international tournament in Bratislava. Eugene remains stable. Yes, he was a little weak in Japan, but he still got to the bronze, even though he didn't believe in it when he was standing in the mixed zone.

Point question: Trusova and Gumennik will compete in Alma Ata for the Grand Prix

Due to the new ISU rules, silver at the Challenger in Kazakhstan is no longer enough for Russians.

Vladislav Dikidzhi probably looks more convincing after the first part of the season. But Semenenko remains a real contender for the only quota for the European and World Championships. So Vlad should be wary.

And Artyom Kovalev took the third place in the heroic free skate. He is not a master of non—jumping elements - spins and tracks, but on Sunday he was second due to three clean quads.

Sensations in pair skating

But there were sensations in the doubles. Anastasia Mukhortova and Dmitry Evgeniev have already competed at the "challengers", won bronze twice and seemed to have the status to take the victory. But the busy first part of the season seems to have affected their form.

As a result, Alexey Tikhonov's team took third place in Kazan, and Permians Yulia Artemyeva and Alexey Bryukhanov, who train under the guidance of a strong young specialist Pavel Slyusarenko, won. Silver went to another of his pairs, Taisiya Shcherbinina and Artyom Petrov.

Perm Triumph — at least in one form, the geography of our figure skating is not limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In dancing, Sofia Leontieva and Daniil Gorelkin beat Elizaveta Pasechnik and Dario Cirizano, who also managed to perform at several international tournaments and are the current bronze medalists of the Russian championship.

Lisa made a serious mistake in the rhythm dance, so on Sunday the couple had to win back as many as five points. We managed to reduce the gap by only three.

It is all the more interesting that Sofia and Daniel did not receive a neutral status. So, we have a pretty decent bench in dancing.

Figure skating. Russian Grand Prix (1st stage, Kazan)

Men

1. Evgeny Semenenko – 296.13

2. Andrey Mozalev – 252.16

3. Artem Kovalev – 247.88

Women

1. Kamilla Nelyubova – 217.75

2. Anna Frolova – 208.32

3. Ksenia Sinitsyna – 199.83

Couples

1. Yulia Artemyeva/Alexey Bryukhanov – 187.50

2. Taisiya Shcherbinina/Artyom Petrov – 184.06

3. Anastasia Mukhortova/Dmitry Evgeniev – 177.52

Dances

1. Sofia Leontieva/Daniil Gorelkin – 186.11

2. Elizabeth the Beekeeper/Dario Cirizano – 184.40

3. Ekaterina Rybakova/Ivan Makhnonosov – 179.03