The butterfly effect: Boikova and Kozlovsky lost in France, Dikigi won in St. Petersburg

Russians Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky lost for the first time this season, losing to representatives of Georgia Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava at the Grand Prix in Angers (France). After the short program, our pair was only 1.49 points behind their rivals, but as a result, the gap increased almost fivefold. At the same time, Vladislav Dikidzhi confidently won the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, ahead of Olympic participant Pyotr Gumennik.

Why Boikova and Kozlovsky lost

Five years without the stages of the international Grand Prix — and immediately a medal. You can say that the beginning has been laid, everything is ahead, the beginning is a disaster, and other palliative words in defeat. Unfortunately, this is a defeat. After the short program, it was clear that Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky could win only if the competitors made mistakes, because the Georgians had a margin in the component part. And Metelkina/Berulava made this mistake, and not just one. There was a fall, and the cascade turned out to be not very simple (a premium of +0.06), with a triple sheepskin coat on the negative side.

But our duet, which came out in front of our bandmates, was even more noticeable. The guys went for a quadruple ejection, it's a conscious risk and it's worth praising. But there are no bonuses for attempts in figure skating, especially if they are unsuccessful. Following the outburst, a "butterfly" on a sheepskin coat came out at the wrong time, which in figure skating is worse than falling. Actually, at that moment it was already clear that this day would not end with gold.

The discussion about the quadruple ejection seems to be useless — Sasha and Dima are athletes to the core and this element is important to them as a distinctive feature and a symbol of progress relative to other couples. But also in a sporting way — to fight for places, not for abstract achievements. Kozlovsky himself spoke about the importance of victories, not pure rentals, after a difficult victory at the Challenger in Japan.

In the morning, before the free skate, the quadruple turned out, but then Kozlovsky fell heavily and lay on the ice for a while. Nevertheless, they did not give up the risk.

The bet did not play in the competition. Boikova couldn't resist landing and fell. In addition to the parallel sheepskin coat, todes did not work out either — his technical team rated him only with the first level. There were also good moments: a cascade of triple salchow + double axel, triple twist, clean flip release, powerful supports. But for a program that needed to recoup a small gap, there were too many losses.

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The Russians scored 121.81 points for the free skate, which is significantly lower than their September score of 131.41 at the Kinoshita Group Cup. The total was 197.66. Competitors' mistakes turned out to be less expensive.

What positive things can be learned from the last performance? The international judges did not treat the returning Russians as newcomers: already in the short they received grades that allowed them to directly compete with the Olympic medalists. That is, the question now is not so much about the status or long absence from the Grand Prix stages. The issue is primarily about cleanliness.

Probably brisk this season./Kozlovsky will have to solve a difficult dilemma: something like what haunted Alexandra Trusova during the Olympic season. She really wanted to do five fours, performed them at the Olympics, but it was because of this that she lost to Anna Shcherbakova. The quad burst is a luxurious weapon, but it does not turn the program into a championship program by itself. His advantage easily disappears after a single fall. Moreover, the difference in the base cost between the quadruple and triple emissions is not so huge as to compensate for the remaining errors.

Boikova and Kozlovsky are now strong enough to compete with the best couples in the world without discounts on the return. Will they step on their song's throat if, for example, they are in the lead after the short program at the World Championships?

How Dikiji defeated Humennik

Vladislav Dikigi and Peter Gumennik approached the St. Petersburg stage of the Russian Grand Prix with a very different set of results. Vlad won both of his "challengers" in Tokyo and Almaty, while Peter lost too much in these tournaments already in the short program. The Nevsky Ice at home gave the two stars of our men's skating the opportunity to meet again in the same arena.

In the short program, Humennik was able to really cope with himself: he made no mistakes, performed a clean cascade of quadruple flip — triple toe loop, quadruple lutz and triple axel. All non-jump elements have received the fourth level. The result is 108.49 points! It is all the more curious that he got the first place because of the sanctions against Dikigi: he exceeded the rental time, lost one point and became the second with his 107.83.

It became obvious that the fight for gold in the free skate would take place between these two skaters. Vladislav was the first to take the ice. His rental cannot be called ideal: on landing from the cascade, Dikigi's quadruple salchow — triple sheepskin coat fell out on his back, restrained himself with two hands, which was counted as a fall. He also made a mistake on the final triple axel, receiving 189.84 points and 297.67 in total.

Only Humennik could move Dikiji from the first line. Peter started confidently, performed a quadruple flip, a cascade of quadruple lutz, a triple toe loop and a quadruple rittberger. After that, errors began to come out — an unexpected "butterfly" on the lutz, a strong undercut on the salchow, and a drop in levels on non-jump elements.

The performance itself turned out to be quite good — there was a breakdown of one element in such a complex program. Nevertheless, it was not possible to get around Dikigi: Humennik received only 185.50 points for the rental, which gave a total of 293.99.

Gleb Lutfullin, Nikita Sarnovsky and Arseniy Fedotov competed for bronze. It is noteworthy that it was Arseny who lagged behind his competitors at the end of the short one. He had 95.35 points, Gleb had 98.44, and Nikita had 98.14. Arseny's rental turned out to be confident in all aspects: from ultra-si, he performed a cascade of quadruple salchow — triple toe loop, quadruple lutz, quadruple toe loop, quadruple salchow and two triple axels. This earned Fedotov a bronze medal (188.13 points and 283.48 in total). Lutfullin followed him, while Sarnovsky finished fifth. Although he started the program perfectly, he did the quadruple jumps with a margin. But the second half of the rental turned out to be flawed, the triple axel did not submit, as did the triple lutz.

The second stage of the Russian Women's Grand Prix was won by Ksenia Sinitsyna. Following the results of the two programs, the 22-year-old figure skater scored 205.34 points. Veronika Yametova took the second place with a score of 199.84 points, and Dina Khusnutdinova took the third place (197.05 points).

Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov won the sports pairs competition. Following the results of two performances, the athletes scored 212.78 points. After the short program, Mishina and Gallyamov were second with a score of 78.94 points. The second place was taken by Ekaterina Chikmareva and Matvey Yanchenkov (211.53 points), who led the short program. Ekaterina Geinish and Andrey Rud rounded out the top three winners (189.39 points).