It's no secret that in order to take part in the championships of a planetary scale, figure skaters need not only to climb the podium of the national championship, but also have a certain technical minimum in place.

The selection system for such competitions is built in such a way that the strongest athletes go to the main starts of the season. At one time, this role was played by the so-called school, then - qualification, now here is the technical assessment received by the athlete during the last two seasons at international ISU competitions, and in two types of programs.

It was this ill-fated technical minimum that became the stumbling block for a number of domestic skaters, whether juniors or adults, to obtain a pass to Hungarian Debrecen and American Boston.

As a result, the composition of the figure skaters representing Belarus at the World Championships has slightly thinned compared to last year: this time not one of the junior girls got to Hungary, and none of the men went to the North American continent.

This season there is a situation when quantity does not mean quality, because among 29 participants of the Belarusian championship, which took place in early February on the ice of the Minsk-Arena complex, only a few girls had a technical minimum and only in one of the types of programs.

The February attempts to achieve the desired result for the World Junior Championships among the top three prize-winners of the championship at international competitions in Miskolc, Vienna and Obersdorf ended in failure.

Likewise, both of our adult singles: the current champion of the country Alexei Melekhin and the more titled Pavel Ignatenko, before the time allowed by the ISU rules, did not manage to earn a sufficient amount of technical minimum at the tournament in the capital of Bulgaria, not to mention the champion of Belarus Yanina Makeenko, who has full preparation for the season it didn't work out.

As a result, this year at the World Junior Championships in mid-March the country was represented only by Yakov Zenko, as well as the dance couple Maria Oleinik and Yuri Gulitsky. And two weeks later, the sports couple Tatyana Danilova and Nikolai Kamenchuk, dancers Victoria Kovaleva and Yuri Belyaev flew to Boston.

By and large, the performances of our juniors, considering that this time the Belarusian team consisted of two-thirds of the debutants of the tournament of such a high level, turned out to be quite worthy.

This also applies to fifteen-year-old Yakov Zenko, who had his first junior season and his first experience of participating in the world championship. As, however, and Maria Oleinik - she only in May last paired with Yuri Gulitsky.

The latter has no competitive experience - with Evgenia Tkachenko in 2012 he became the Olympic champion of the first youth games, entered the top twenty dance duets of last year's tournament, taking the final 17th place among 27 couples with a total of 107.89 points.

However, immediately after the championship, the tandem ended its existence, and Yuri had to look for a new partner, because Yevgenia Tkachenko had made a decision the day before to say goodbye to big sports and start preparing for studies at the Academy of Management.

Perhaps she was restrained by the dream of getting to the main start of the season for every junior, therefore, knowing about the imminent separation, the guys prepared with a firm decision not only to be there, but also to demonstrate their best skates at the first and last world championships for them.

So this time Gulitsky had to pass a kind of aptitude test, whether he was able to approach the result of last year with a new partner.

In practice, it was possible, although it did not work out to be surpassed, - the final 17th place among the 31st duo with a score of 106.31 points, which is 1.58 points lower than its own indicator last year. The result of the short program is 45.02 points (22.85 - for the technique of execution, 22.17 - for the components), the free program - 62.29 points (28.71 - for the technique of execution, 32.58 - for the components).

Maria, by the way, is a pupil of a Russian school, besides, the couple spent a significant part of the season in Odintsovo near Moscow, training in a group with Alexei Gorshkov.

Neighbors were also involved in the preparation of Yakov Zenko, who has recently been the ward of the famous coach Eteri Tutberidze and whom Russian fans consider conditionally theirs, as, however, conditionally consider the Ukrainians and Yuri Belyaev, a native of Odessa.

Among 38 guys, Yakov took 17th place with a score of 174.39 points (22nd in the short and 15th in the free program). The sum of points scored on the basis of the results of the short program was 57.67 points (30.60 - for the technique of execution, 27.07 - for the components), for the free program - 116.72 points (60.36 - for the technique of execution, 56.36 - for components).

A year ago in Tallinn, the country was represented by the more experienced Anton Karpuk, but his result was not so high - only 45.67 points and only 35th place among forty participants in the short program.

For another participant of last year's championship, Daria Batura, the season was not the most successful, and also for the reasons mentioned above, our girls were not at this “celebration of life”. The tradition of participation, or rather, non-participation of junior sports pairs, continued this year as well.

In pair skating, the Belarusians nevertheless performed, but already at the adult world championship, the results of which are not so satisfactory for the Belarusians.

The "Boston Tea Party" for the Belarusian team took place, although the possibility that this time this cup will bypass the compatriots took place, taking into account the results of our guys at the last European Championship.

However, both pairs skated far from flawlessly, which provided an excuse for the refereeing team to deprive themselves of the chance to get marks comparable to their best results. It is possible that one of the reasons could be the problem of acclimatization, but it is unambiguous that the lack of experience cannot be explained by what happened.

Indeed, for Victoria Kovaleva and Yuri Belyaev, this is already the fourth world championship, which took place for them only in the short program, because the result obtained was 40.82 (of which 18.22 and 22.60 were for technique and components, respectively) points allowed the duo to rise in the standings only to the 28th position out of 30 vacant ones.

The place is similar to the result of a year ago in China, with the difference that the Belarusians earned 41.08 points for renting a short program then, while the score for the technique turned out to be 6.68 points less than last year's result, but the second score increased by 2 , 29 points.

Tatiana Danilova and Nikolay Kamenchuk were 20th among 22 sports pairs with a total of 45.56 points, of which 25.41 - for technique of performance and 20.15 - for components. Maria Polyakova and Nikita Bochkov, who represented the country a year ago, took 17th place in China among 19 duets with a result of 46.17 points in the short program.

By the way, both of our couples, both sports and dance, are the only adult athletes in the national team. There is no reserve in these types, but if promising juniors are promising among the dancers, and, despite the fact that two duos - Anastasia Tkacheva and Vadim Davidovich, Kristina Kaunatskaya and Jan Lukovsky - broke up in the first half of the season after participating in the Grand Prix stages, you can to say that we have a growing generation.

But in pair skating, despite certain attempts on the part of BSC to create several junior pairs, the prospects are far from bright. Meanwhile, Belarus has two quotas for the next European Championship in this type of program, and even now there are doubts about whether they will be used in full.

But the championship title of last year in pair skating was confirmed by Canadians Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who flawlessly performed their programs.

In second place, like a year ago, the Chinese Wenjing Sui and Tsun Han took the third place, the athletes representing Germany, the Ukrainian Alena Savchenko and the Frenchman Bruno Massot.

The top three were left without the Russians, the leading Russian couples, they are the Olympic champions of the Games in Sochi, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, as well as Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who returned this season, are located, respectively, on the fourth and sixth lines of the standings.

For the second year in a row, in ice dancing, the French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron became champions, shaming the skeptics. But the next steps, to the great joy of the local audience, were already occupied by the North American duets - Maya and Alexa Shibutani, who had a brilliant season, at the end of which they can be congratulated with silver medals, as well as Madison Chock and Evan Bates - with bronze ones.

Now two-time world champion Javier Fernandez once again demonstrates how much he cares about authority, giving him the cleanest skating, in contrast to his more talented rivals. The Spaniard has added another gold medal from Boston to his collection, which already has four European gold medals and the highest standard award from last year's World Championships.

Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan, despite a clear advantage in the short program, could not cope with the free program, and, like a year ago, had to be content with only the second place. For the first time, the young Chinese prodigy Boyang Jin climbed to the third step of the podium, churning out jumps in four turns one after another and promising to ruin the lives of leaders in the very near future.

The best of the Russians turned out to be another debutant of the World Championship, Mikhail Kolyada, who took fourth place in the standings.

Last year, the world applauded Elizaveta Tuktamysheva from Russia, who did not manage to qualify for the main tournaments this time. A year later, another Russian woman, the 2015 world junior champion, the 2016 European champion, young Evgenia Medvedeva won her first adult world championship. Her teammate was supported by Anna Pogorilaya, who finished third in two types of programs, behind Ashley Wagner from the United States.

At the ended World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, the level of competition was insane. Only in ice dancing, the French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, who took the lead after the first day, managed to win gold. All the talk that their short dance is not outstanding this season somehow subsided by themselves. For an arbitrary, now two-time world champions received such points that inevitably the question arises: how do you need to skate in order to improve them?

Jealousy inside

Of course, outstanding coaches and choreographers are now working in dancing, who have far from exhausted their creative potential. The only pity is that Russian duets are far from being in the first positions in numerous groups. No matter what Marina Zueva or Igor Shpilband may say about the fact that all students are given the same attention, and the result is determined by the rental at specific competitions, there is a gradation. As well as jealousy, which figure skaters as educated people try not to show to fans and journalists.

I wonder how the growing coaching duo Marie-France Dubreuil - Patrice Lozon will cope with this problem? While in their group, working in Montreal, the French were the undisputed leaders, but in the new season the Olympic champions of Vancouver and the silver medalists of Sochi Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will start training there. While in Canada or the United States, coaches are not so dependent on federations, skaters from the Maple Leaf Country will clearly count on priority from their compatriots.

Some did not have time, others were "overripe"

The problem of a large group is also invisibly present at the Moscow skating rink, where Nina Moser, who has gathered under her wing all the best sports couples in Russia, is working. This season, as her ill-wishers constantly hinted, Moser, who took the first roles during the preparation for the Sochi Olympics, tried to "dissolve" her main forces. The final of the Grand Prix series was missed by Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, the championships of Russia and Europe - Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov. Yes, the skaters had injuries, but there was no internal competition.

Moser's group was preparing for Boston in full force and very seriously. Unlike our girls, the hotbeds held an acclimatization camp in America. Only Moser failed to bring our leading duets to the peak of their form for the main start. There was not enough time to be recruited by Stolbova and Klimov, and Trankov and Volosozhar (especially from a partner) did not feel much motivation. Hence the mistake, simply inexplicable for two-time Olympic champions, when performing support in a free program. For this element, Tatiana and Maxim received a steering wheel and, as a result, in a free program for technique they had 15 points out of 16 participants. Hence the final sixth place.

The quieter you go, the further you'll get?

Such metamorphoses happened not only with our skaters. After the short program, they rushed to announce Yuzuru Hanyu as the new world champion for men. The gap from the closest pursuer of more than 12 points, combined with the authority of the Olympic champion, should have guaranteed the Japanese victory. Yes, only for the second year in a row Yuzuru gives a chance to the Spaniard Javier Fernandez, which he again took advantage of. According to Brian Orser, who trains the undisputed leaders of men's figure skating this season, there is no graduation by numbers in his group either.

Perhaps not, but there is an unbridled pursuit of complexity. Without five quadruple jumps in two programs, the Canadian coach will not bring his guys to the World Cup today. After all, the Chinese Boyang Jing, who became the bronze medalist for the first time, already has six of them in his arsenal! There is another way though. Petersburg debutant Mikhail Kolyada included one quadruple in the short and free programs - and immediately took the fourth place. By the next season, he promises to master another one. And only if he masters, he will include it in his programs.

This is not the roulette that Maxim Kovtun has been playing for the second season. Although the three-time champion of Russia himself claims: he succeeds in training, but at competitions he “stiffens”. No, no psychologist will help in such a situation. You just need to have the character that our skaters have.

Thank you competition

In the short program, Evgenia Medvedeva was unable to fulfill the planned cascade, but immediately got her bearings and “hooked” a triple toe loop to another triple jump in the second part of the program. Elena Radionova did the same at the Grand Prix finals. Well, Anna Pogorilaya, the nominal third number of the national team, it was in Boston that she issued unmistakable rentals of two programs, which brought her bronze.

Medvedeva took her own in an arbitrary, for which she received a record amount of points. Only the hypothetical Gold-Wagner could beat her. Yes, only Gracie flawlessly skated only the short one, and Ashley - the free one. Given the enormous competition in the Russian women's team (we could have sent two or even three competitive teams to the world championship), even the problem of adolescence, with which Radionova suffered all season, does not cause much concern.

Medvedeva is definitely a unique girl. Even Alexei Mishin, examining the jumping advantages of his rivals through a magnifying glass, admitted that she has unique abilities. However, next year, in order to defend the title won in Boston, she will have the hardest part at the Russian Championship in Chelyabinsk. She, too, has already reached the limit of possibilities. To improve the score at the 2016 World Cup, you need to either jump a triple axel without mistakes, or a quadruple jump. Otherwise, the girls from the next generation will outstrip, for whom, due to their age, it is technically easier to jump, and there are no thoughts in their heads that interfere with the same Kovtun.

World Cup 2016 results

Men. 1. Fernandez (Spain) - 314.93; 2. Hanyu (Japan) - 295.17; 3. Boyan Jin (China) - 270.99; 4. Kolyada - 267.97 ... 18. Kovtun (both - Russia) - 210.14. Women. 1. Medvedeva (Russia) - 223.86; 2. Wagner (USA) - 215.39; 3. Burned out - 213.69 ... 6. Radionova (both - Russia) - 209.81.

Sports couples. 1. Dugamel / Radford (Canada) - 231.99; 2. Sui Wenjin / Han Kon (China) - 224.47; 3. Savchenko / Masso (Germany) - 216.17; 4. Stolbova / Klimov - 214.48; 5. Tarasova / Morozov - 206.27; 6. Volosozhar / Trankov (all pairs - Russia) - 205.81.

At the last world championship in Norway, Russian biathletes set an absolute anti-record,. Domestic skaters also had to drink this cup of shame: nine years ago, the Russian national team left the Japanese capital with a steering wheel. Since then, such a failure has not been repeated at any tournament. It will not happen again in Boston, where the 2016 World Cup will start on the Gardena ice. There is no doubt that the Russian flag will be raised at the awards ceremony and, most likely, more than once.

The only question is in the point location of the tricolor.

Battle of local significance

True, initially local battles are coming. The world championship will not begin with the types in which the Russians claim for awards. While in the dance the hosts of the tournament will find out which of the two duets - Chok / Bates or brother and sister Shibutani - will be able to challenge the reigning world champions from France, two Russian couples will try to make sure that there are already three of them in Helsinki-2017. Without Bobrova and Solovyova, it won't be easy to do. Sinitsina and Katsalapov among the participants of the tournament have the sixth result of the season, Stepanova and Bukin- the ninth. It is not enough just to perform in your own strength, in order to get the required amount of places no more than 13, you need to jump over your head.

In dances, such feats are given much harder, because here it is impossible to destroy everyone with super-complex elements - all duets do the same thing, and the levels set by the technical team are of decisive importance. Which, again, top couples often have the same. And if the referees skimped on components all season, then the likelihood that they will discern the artistry, expressiveness and class of skating at the end of the season is extremely small. It is hardly worth demanding an almost impossible podium from the Russian students of Marina Zueva, and even more so from the bronze medalists of the national championship who got to Boston as a result of force majeure. They will complete the minimum task of winning three tickets for the next season - and thanks for that.

Geniuses and hard workers

Our men will fight in Boston only for themselves. In modern times, singles have gathered such a flower garden that Maxim Kovtun and Mikhail Kolyada it is almost impossible to collect three quotas. However, such a global blockage of programs to stay in the new season with only one ticket, also seems incredible. The successful performance of the guys can be considered if they take a place closer to the middle of the top ten at the end of the tournament.

Figure skating. World championship
Competition schedule (Moscow time)

For those who are not susceptible to rooting for the Russian flag, the men's tournament will allow them to fully enjoy figure skating. Three geniuses at the same skating rink, so different, but necessarily making you admire (and sometimes hate, that's why they are geniuses, which do not leave indifferent) - is this not happiness for sports fans, regardless of the country of residence? True, this fact does not mean that any of the Jin-Chan-Hanyu trinity will certainly win. There is a naturally less gifted, but fantastically stubborn and insanely charismatic world champion Javier Fernandez, who steadily adds at the end of the year Denis Ten, as well as the young Japanese talent Soma Uno. They are definitely not going to sit back and wait until they receive something from the master's table. Will the intrigue last until the end? Will anyone attack the monumental world record for the champion of Sochi? Can we do without referee scandals? The first answers to these questions will be heard very soon.

Battle of tired warriors

In fact, none of the couples challenging Boston's awards come up to the championship in a "jingle" state. Maxim Trankov from the very beginning of the season he is looking for motivation for further performances, which in any case is reflected in his skating with Tatiana Volosozhar... Yes, while they are winning, but they have never met with rivals of a comparable level in the season. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov in general, we were preparing for the tournament in secrecy, and only knows how things are with the partner's health Nina Moser... A few weeks before the start of the competition, she said the phrase that the decision to participate or withdraw from the championship would be made almost a few hours before the short program.

But foreign competitors are also far from going smoothly. Wengjin Sui and Cong Han this year they are fighting with a quadruple ejection and injuries to the partner - first, the leg was injured, then the eye was injured. It seems that everything worked out, but even for the “most heroic partner in the world”, the body's resource is not unlimited and may end at the most inopportune moment. Reigning world champions Megan Duhamel and Eric Redford they don't look as bright now as they did a year ago, plus Duhamel got poisoned on Four Continents.

The composition of the Russian national team
Women. , Anna Pogorilaya
Men. Maxim Kovtun, Mikhail Kolyada
Couples. Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov, Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov, Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov
Dancing. Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov, Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin.

Newly formed couple Alena Savchenko and Bruno Massot the margin of safety is not enough to win, as well as the rapidly progressing Americans Alex Simeke and Chris Knerim... So it turns out that in the upcoming battle of the famous, but tired warriors, nerves and the ability to get together at the right time will come to the fore.

Without thinking about competitors

And now we come to the type of program where Russian athletes should not look back at their rivals. Women's single skating has been our fiefdom in recent years. Yes, Mao Asada has returned. Yes, Satoko Miyahara makes full use of the gaps in the judging system, skillfully masking the roughness in his triple jumps. In the offseason, it is worth paying close attention to the ISU technical committee, as at one time they paid attention to Plushenko's lack of ligaments. Yes, Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner will be performing at home, which will provide honorable mentions from the panel of judges. But Evgenia Medvedeva and Elena Radionova do not need to stuff their heads with such nonsense. They will perform their jump set perfectly, and no one will catch up with them. Anna Pogorila can only wish that she did not replenish her collection of falls in Boston, from which the blood runs cold in the veins even of television operators. Everything else for success she already has.

The first day of the World Championship, which is being held for the first time in the American Boston, was marked by minor chords for the Russian team. Only Mikhail pleased the fans, himself and his permanent coach.

The debutant of big competitions of the ending season pulled out the second starting number during the draw, which helped the St. Petersburg resident from the point of view that Kolyada had performed long before potential competitors. This means that he had the opportunity to ride for his own pleasure, without thinking about rivals. Personal record and a few tenths of a point up to 90 - this result of Kolyada removed the question about the current leader of the men's competition at the world championship.

The world figure skating championship itself for a long time deprived the Boston public of the opportunity to watch their beloved Bruins and Celtics at home. Even in sports bars, which are innumerable in the vicinity of the famous TD Garden arena, there is a very interesting schedule of TV broadcasts.

The calendar for March shows the matches of the basketball and hockey clubs, and starting from March 30, only the inscription: "Sorry, world figure skating championship".

However, such a schedule does not interfere with the show of off-site meetings, but the fact that in the USA figure skating is broadcast on several TV channels is not a secret at all. It is also no secret that such a large-scale event can be fully seen only at the stadium. TV selects only selected types, and even then not in full. And in the stands - please, see how much you fit. Or what the thickness of the wallet is enough for.

At first glance, the prices on the lower bar do not look particularly biting, but the balconies were almost empty on the first day of the championship. The $ 25 and $ 30 tickets for a short dance and a short program for men were of little interest to anyone. But premium seats of 125 and 150 unconditional units were in short supply.

However, if you are a desperate figure skating fan and want to see everything up to the demonstration performances, if you please shell out for $ 1,295. Or 695, but in bad places. You can walk to the balcony all week for only 350, but you can only see from there sweaters with the names of Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Ray Burke and other hockey and basketball stars of the past. Moreover, there are no personal canvases for basketball players, only group canvases - there were too many great athletes in the history of Celtics. No exceptions were made for Parish, McHale, or even.

But back to figure skating. Again Yuzuro Hanyu conquered the audience. The Olympic champion seemed to have set a goal - no rental without a record. And almost installed the next one. His skating "live" is a mixture of the sport of transcendent human capabilities with the greatest art. And a few fractions of a point, which the Japanese did not reach his own December achievement, is not a reason for reasoning: the team is different, the judges blink not very synchronously, but you never know factors.

Hanyu did the impossible again. Sometimes after the end of his program, you can seriously begin to worry about the mental health of an athlete.

Well, a normal person cannot print records with such constancy. Recession in form, a slip with a maximum, banal fatigue - all these factors do not take the Japanese at all, they are inapplicable to him.

It is even necessary to argue with the rest of the arrangement of men after a short program. The reigning world champion, with a fall from a quadruple Salchow, received as much as he did in his best years.

Yes, Patrick himself also got too many points, but after the Spaniard's scores, his scores no longer looked like a flagrant injustice, especially since the Canadian's second score should still be higher. And Javier's marks for the technique, which surpass the unique content of the Chinese Boyan Jin, are completely absurd.

The champion of Russia was completely lost in such a company. Max failed to perform to the maximum. The most offensive mistake (a triple toe loop instead of a quadruple after the 4-3 cascade), according to the current rules, led to the zeroing of the element. And to the possible points Maxim did not get more than ten. And this is already a sentence.

Getting out of 13th place with the density of results that men have is almost unrealistic. It's good that Kolyada remained in the top six. From the first "warm-up" to the strongest, the final one is an excellent snatch.

The Russian dancers did not please either. In the absence of those who fell under the "meldonium distribution", our two other duos (Sinitsina - Katsalapov and Stepanova - Bukin) stopped at a serious distance from the medal showdown.

Although at first nothing foreshadowed such a development of events. Victoria and Nikita skated at the maximum. It is no coincidence that the legendary duo's coach called this performance the best of the season.

Looked good with. But in the fight for medals, “not bad” is not an argument. Russian dancers will not bring the notorious three quotas for next year, let alone interfere in the fight for medals - this is a given. And we were already late for the transport to the Olympic pedestal in Pyeongchang. We'll have to look into the distant future. Moreover, we are not used to it.

And in Boston, others "lit". The North Americans looked cool as expected. Both brother and sister Shibutani, and Chok-Bates, and Canadian couples looked equal among equals. Nuances separated the duets from each other. But few people can guarantee that after free skating the arrangement will remain the same: the intervals are too small. Unless the leaders and reigning world champions, the French Papadakis - Sizeron, are not obliged to jump higher than the tops of local pines.

Gabriella and Guillaume, who mesmerized the audience on the first day of the championship, have, according to the public and experts, the best free dance this season. The task is outrageously simple - not to fall, and then they will become double.

The Russian public should wait a little. On Thursday, women join the fight, where ours are the main favorites. With a successful rental, both Medvedev and Radionova may be on the podium, and if suddenly something goes wrong with them, and Pogorilaya will not let you down. And even though the American women Gold and Wagner and the Japanese women Asada and Miyahara tried to inspire fear in training, with a clean performance our competitors will not be able to find a sufficient number of arguments for gold.

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