Leadership Tuktamysheva, consistency Zabiyako and Enbert, brilliant hire of Voronov: the results of the first day of the Japanese Grand Prix

Battle of Tuktamysheva with Miyahara

After the super-successful start of the Grand Prix, Russian skaters expected no less good results at the next stage in Japan. Victories in competitions in Canada and Finland not only tuned fans in a positive way, but also greatly raised the bar. In addition, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva was supposed to perform in Hiroshima, who, with her amazing rental in Laval, showed that she was ready to fight for the leadership in women's figure skating.

At Skate Canada, Tuktamysheva’s main rival was Evgenia Medvedeva, who continues to adapt to the new coach and program. In Japan, Elizaveta fought mainly with the winner of the American stage of the Grand Prix Satoko Miyyara and world champion in team competitions Mai Mihara. At the same time, two more Russian athletes, Maria Sotskova and Alyona Leonova, made up the Tuktamyshev company.

As a result, Sotskova acted extremely unsuccessfully, taking only ninth place in the short program, and Leonova was three lines higher. The main struggle, as expected, unfolded between the two mistresses of the tournament and Tuktamysheva. Mihara could not withstand the competition and lost almost six points to her rivals, and in the confrontation between Elizabeth and Satoko, luck was on the side of the Russian. She scored 76.17 points, nine-hundredths ahead of her main rival.

It is particularly noteworthy with what delight the local audience greeted every element performed by Tuktamysheva. Any Russian jump was accompanied by a thunder of applause, despite the fact that Elizabeth was competing with the mistress of the competition.

Tuktamysheva herself said that she was extremely satisfied with the level of skating shown in the short program.

“I was nervous much more than during the Canadian Grand Prix. It was hard to skate because she felt a bit sleepy. I put a lot of energy into my program because I really wanted to skate well. Now I am emotionally devastated, ”the press service of the International Figure Skating Federation (ISU) quotes Tuktamyshev.

She also admitted that she was not surprised at how her rivalry with Miyahara was formed.

“We are very close. But I expected this, because Satoko is a very skilful skater. Tomorrow there will be an interesting duel, I hope we will roll back to a high level. The strongest will win, ”the Russian woman concluded.

Victory series Zabiyako and Enbert

Natalya Zabiyako and Alexander Enbert decided not to waste the form and perform at two stages of the Grand Prix in a row. Just a week ago, they won in Finland, and now they have more than successfully started in Japan. After the first rental, they are in the lead in the standings and have 73.48 points in their assets, which is almost six points more than their result in Helsinki. Then, after the short program, they occupied only second place, behind the Italians Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarize.

Thus, before the preliminary program, they have a very serious margin, 2.82 points ahead of their closest competitors - the Chinese Peng Cheng and Jin Yang. The third place is occupied by Skate Canada bronze medalists Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro (67.70 points). It is noteworthy that in Canada they finished in the same order, losing the first line to the French pair Vannessa James / Morgan Sipre.

After the speech, Enbert admitted that he was pleased with the performance in the short program at the Japanese Grand Prix.

“It was a good rental, we skated with pleasure. Almost everything turned out, there were only a few small errors, but on the whole the impression remained positive. There is still something that can be improved. We want all the elements to be the fourth level, ”the ISU press service quotes the Russian figure skater.

Voronov's impeccable performance

In the men's single skating, Russian fans pinned their hopes on Dmitry Aliyev and Sergey Voronov.

This season, 19-year-old Aliyev has never performed at the Grand Prix stages, having limited himself to participation in the Lombardy Cup. There, he took second place, behind only the recognized favorite Syom Uno.

Voronov went to the United States, where he became the third, letting Michal Brzezin and Nathan Chen ahead. It was the 31-year-old Russian who became the only figure skater from the last warm-up who unmistakably skated the short program. Sergey performed all the elements and didn’t concede to the favorite of the competition Uno for technical components. He showed his best result in the season (91.37 points) and finished second after the Japanese (92.49 points). And this despite the fact that Syoma could not perform a cascade.

Dmitry Aliyev also fell flawlessly and fell during the execution of the triple axel. This seriously affected his final mark (81.16 points), but it didn’t stop him from being in the third place. Of course, it will be extremely difficult to fight for the victory, but a solid reserve in front of the Italian Matteo Rizzo and Vincent Joux allows you to count on saving space on the pedestal.