The finals of the Russian Grand Prix in figure skating will be held on March 4-5 in St. It will be held in St. Petersburg. In men’s singles and women’s, 12 participants, nine dance duets and eight sports couples will compete for victory and big cash prizes. Among the main contenders for gold are Olympic champions Kamila Valieva, Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov, Mark Kondratyuk.

Initially, the Russian Grand Prix Final was planned to be held in Sochi. However, when the second stage of the series, held on the Black Sea coast at the end of October, did not attract much attention from the audience, rumors emerged that the final tournament could be moved to the Northern capital, where there are never any figure skating competitions. devoid of fans. The information is that the Final was indeed scheduled for St. It became official in January, when it was announced that it would take place in St. Petersburg.

From the Grand Prix of the International Skating Union (ISU), the final results of which were determined in December, the Russian series differs not only in the timing of the Final, but also in the number of participants and the schedule. their choice. If the six strongest competitors in each discipline made it to the ISU Grand Prix Final based solely on the results of their performance in the stages, a maximum of 12 participants, according to regulations, had to qualify for the decisive Russian Grand Prix tournament. Also, in addition to the best in terms of the sum of points earned in two stages, participants of the Russian Championship and the Russian Junior Championships – members of the country’s national teams can take part in the final.

In practice, it turned out that not everyone who qualified for the Russian Grand Prix Final by points did not want to participate in it. For example, the country’s ice dancing champions Elizaveta Khudaiberdiyeva and Yegor Bazin, whose names are not in the front lineup, according to their coach Denis Samokhin, initially did not plan to perform. Also, the silver medalist of the 2018 Olympics team tournament, Mikhail Kolyada, will not enter the ice in the Russian Grand Prix Final. However, after two stages of the series, he missed all the competitions.

The most significant loss of the Russian Grand Prix Final is Alexandra Trusova, silver medalist of the Beijing Olympic Games. The official reason for the skater’s withdrawal from the tournament is a back injury, which Tatyana Tarasova mentioned when she called Alexandra’s coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya. However, like Kolyada, Trusova missed all competitions after the Russian Grand Prix stages. At the same time, both athletes perform at ice shows. Besides Trusova, Xenia Sinitsyna, who missed the tournament due to medical reasons, did not take part in the Russian Grand Prix Final women’s tournament.

The main contenders for victory in the final of the Russian Grand Prix among women are the national champion Sofia Akatieva and the winner of the Beijing Olympics team tournament Kamila Valieva. At the Russian Championships in Krasnoyarsk, the struggle of these skaters ended in favor of young Akatieva. To get revenge, Valieva will probably need an axel of three and a half turns in the short program, which she has yet to achieve in this season’s competitions. The figure skater fell from this jump and during the “costume rehearsal”, performing as a guest star on the stage of the Moscow Sports Cup.

The list of favorites is not limited to these two skaters. 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, two-time silver medalist Sofia Muravyova in the Russian Grand Prix stages and Adelia Petrosyan, the champion of the Sochi stage, may also compete for the victory. Other participants of the tournament include the winner of the last Russian championship, Alina Gorbacheva, as well as Sofia Samodelkina, Ksenia Gushchina, Sofia Zakharova, Veronika Yametova, Anna Frolova and Victoria Fedyanina.

In men’s men, besides Kolyada, another defeat of the Russian Grand Prix Final was Gleb Lutfullin. The winner of the Samara stage was replaced by coach Alexei Mishin’s bandmate Matvey Vetlugin due to a recent illness. However, there are enough contenders for victory if not these two skaters. These are Evgeny Semenenko and Petr Gumennik, the gold and silver medalists of the Russian Championship, and Dmitry Aliev, the 2020 European champion.

Much of the men’s tournament will depend on the shape of the athletes, and this is a key issue in assessing Mark Kondratyuk’s chances of winning the Russian Grand Prix Final. Last year, Russia, the winner of the championships in Europe and the team tournament of the Olympics at the beginning of this season, proved that it can score solid points. However, due to back problems, Kondratyuk was unable to perform at full strength neither in the second stage of the series in Samara, nor at the Russian Championships in Krasnoyarsk, where he often starred after the short program. If in the Grand Prix Final Kondratyuk looks in the most favorable condition, then his chances of success are not less than anyone else.

Also, in the men’s section of the Russian Grand Prix Final, Alexander Samarin, the European assistant champions of different years, and Artur Danielyan, who participated in the Beijing Olympic Games, Andrey Mozalev, and Alexei Erokhov, Makar Ignatov, Artem Kovalev and Ivan Popov will show.

It is easier to determine the favorite hoop in a tournament of sports pairs. These are mainly two duets of the Tamara Moskvina group – the winners of the Olympic team tournament Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov and the champions of Russia Alexandra Boikova / Dmitry Kozlovsky. Judging by the reaction of both couples at the national championship in Krasnoyarsk, the rivalry between them has already become fundamental and the Russian Grand Prix Final will be his next round.

Silver medalists of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, can also claim success. However, it all comes down to the quality of their performances, which has been variable this season: excellent performances and unsuccessful ones. On the eve of the Russian Grand Prix Final, the duo made an unusual move, deciding to use the performances at the Ilya Averbukh show as preparation. The tournament in St. Petersburg will show how justified this is.

In addition to the three couples fighting for medals, Yasmina Kadyrova / Valery Kolesov, Natalya Khabibullina / Ilya Knyazhuk, Yulia Artemyeva / Alexei Bryukhanov, Daria Boyarintseva / Roman Pleshkov and Anastasia Mukhortova / Dmitry Evgeniev will perform in the Russian Grand Prix Final. .

Ice dancing became the most affected discipline in terms of the composition of the participants in the Russian Grand Prix Final. In addition to the country’s champions Khudaiberdiyeva/Bazina, Annabel Morozova/David Narizhny and Irina Khavronina/Dario Chirizano, who qualified for the final tournament, will not perform – these two duets and bronze medalists of the Russian championship Elizaveta broke up Pasechnik and Maxim Nekrasov (for medical reasons). Without them, the winners of the Russian championship Elizaveta Shanaeva / Pavel Drozd, Sofia Tyutynina / Andrei Bagin, who finished fourth in Krasnoyarsk, and Vasilisa Kaganovskaya / Valery Angelopol, who missed that tournament, will compete for the medal.

In addition to these duets, Varvara Zhdanova/Timur Babaev-Smirnov, Alisa Krainyukova/Semyon Netsev, Yana Matveishina/Timofey Subbotin, Ekaterina Mironova/Evgeny Ustenko, Alexandra Prokopets/Alexander Vaskovich and Polina Usova/Mikhail Antonov will perform at the Russian Grand Prix. End.

The final of the Russian Grand Prix will be held on March 4-5 at the Yubileiny sports complex. Participants from all disciplines will perform short programs on Saturday and free programs on Sundays. The prize money for the win will be 1 million rubles for the second place, 750 thousand rubles for the third, 500 thousand rubles for the third.