RCN Worldwide Media Network: Alexandra Stepanova – Ivan Bukin won the Russian Championship, Diana Davis – Gleb Smolkin won silver, Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva – Egor Bazin

Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin won the Championship of Russia in St. Petersburg, becoming two-time holders of this title. Diana Davis -- Gleb Smolkin won the silver medal at her first senior national championship. Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva -- Egor Bazin rose from sixth place and became bronze medalists. Leaders after the rhythm dance, world and European champions Victoria Sinitsina - Nikita Katsalapov withdrew from the competition before the free dance due to an exacerbated back injury in Nikita.

Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin,who took second place after the first

kind, confidently performed a free dance to music from the musical "Romeo and Juliet". Multiple european championship winners received fourth levels for support, spin, twizzles and track on one leg. Skaters received 134.61 points for the ride and a total of 223.37 points.

- Today is probably impossible to describe in words. The emotions that the audience gave us are something incredibly beautiful. Honestly, we have not heard such a reaction for a long time, and it was insanely pleasant, - commented Alexandra Stepanova.

- At first it was nervous, then joyful. And now we have a little bit of devastation, because the start has already passed. I want to exhale, I want to rest, sleep, after all, today was an early rise, - added Ivan Bukin.

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The current season for Stepanova - Bukin began not easy. Due to Sasha's illness, the skaters were forced to miss the pre-season test rides in Chelyabinsk and started immediately at the stages of the Grand Prix series, where new programs were presented for the first time, which were immediately appreciated by the audience. According to the athletes, these programs, in particular, free dance, are somewhat different from what they have already skated. "Romeo and Juliet" is not a retelling of the story of Shakespeare's heroes, but a love story, with a deeper meaning and subtext, which they tell in their skating on ice.

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Debutants of the adult national championship Diana Davis - Gleb Smolkin became silver medalists of the competition. For the rental of a free dance to music from the film "Moulin Rouge", Igor Shpilband's students received fourth levels for four elements and earned 123.71 points and 207.70 points in total, confirming their results shown at the Grand Prix competitions and challengers of this season.

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Yesterday's juniors started the season early not only to gain experience in performing at adult starts, but also to earn the necessary rating. In August, Diana and Gleb performed at the international tournament in Norwood, USA, where they became the second, then there was the Canadian stage of the Grand Prix, challengers in Graz and Warsaw, where the young couple won the first victory in their careers at international competitions. A well-thought-out strategy and tactics allowed the athletes to gradually gain good shape for the national championship, and in St. Petersburg, Igor Shpilband's students did not look like extras.

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- For Diana and I, this is the debut championship of Russia, we are very happy to perform here, very happy to skate for the public. This is a great invaluable experience. We hope that we will continue to progress and develop in the same spirit, - commented Gleb Smolkin.

Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva – Egor Bazin gave an emotional and technical rollout of the free dance, which was staged last season to the music of "Experience" by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi. Before the Grand Prix stage in Sochi, the athletes, together with the coaches, decided to return to this program, as it was immediately well received by the audience and the judges, and did not lose. All elements were evaluated for the third and fourth levels, and for the performance the athletes scored 117.84 points. The pair climbed from sixth place after the rhythm dance and won their first medal at the national championships, with a total of 195.75 points.

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Commenting on the place in the top three, Elizabeth noted:

- We are very glad that we won a bronze medal at the Russian Championship, but let's not forget that the leaders of our team, Nikita and Vika, were absent. Our task is to be always on alert, so that if something suddenly happens, we do not disappoint. We hope that nothing will happen and our leaders, one of the best couples in the world, will defend the honor of the country at the main starts.

For the third place in ice dancing there was a very intense struggle. Annabel Morozov - Andrey Bagin perfectly performed the free dance "Scheherazade" and lost to Khudaiberdiyeva - Bazin only 0.10 points. The dancers finished the national championship in 4th place with a score of 195.65 points.

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- It was probably one of our best free dance rides of the season. True, I personally am not as delighted as I was with the rhythm dance yesterday, but the rental was good, clean. We are satisfied," Andrew said.

- I'm glad we skated well, I can't say anything more. I agree that this is our best rental of the season. I don't comment on the place, I don't comment," Annabelle added.

Elizaveta Shanaeva -- David Narizhny made their masters debut this season. Athletes rose from eighth place after the rhythm dance and eventually became fifth (187.19 points).

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Anastasia Skoptsova – Kirill Aleshin took the sixth place (185.72).

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For Tiffany Zagorski - Jonathan Gureiro, the performance in St. Petersburg was in fact the first of the season and the most difficult for a number of objective reasons. Athletes missed quite a lot of time due to health problems. At first, Jonathan was worried about a back injury, because of which the skaters were forced to skate the rhythm dance twice at the test rides, since doctors forbade the partner at that time to overload, to do support. Tiffany was then hospitalized with viral meningitis. I recovered and started training. Despite all the circumstances, the multiple winners of the Russian championships really wanted to perform at the Russian Championship, although there was not enough time to restore their partner. Tiffany simply did not have enough strength in the free dance. She made mistakes, and the pair dropped to eighth place (179.50 points). G1A3310

Asked by reporters if he thought what Tiffany had done was heroic, Jonathan said:

- Heroism is such a thing. Tiffany is great, she's a hero to me. We had the option to withdraw, but we wanted to compete for a ticket to the Olympics. Before this tournament, we did not skate the whole rhythm dance or the free dance, physically it was impossible, but we hoped for the best. Yesterday everything worked out, Tiffany skated wonderfully. We hope we will have other tournaments this season," the partner said.

Jonathan explained:

-- Before the free skate, the coaches said, 'Tiffany, if there comes a time when you can't physically go, stop.' But when we got on the ice, we decided that we would skate to the end. Like a real athlete, Tiffany rushed at the beginning of the program, and closer to the second half she got tired. I tried to pull it on as best I could, and twice during the ride I asked: maybe we will stop? On the bow, Tiffany was already holding on to me, she wanted to sit down as soon as possible...

Skaters' press conference after the free dance: