RCN Worldwide Media Network: Kamila Valieva leads after the short program at the Russian Championships, Anna Shcherbakova is second, Sofia Muravyeva is third

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Kamila Valieva leads after the short program at the Russian Championships, Anna Shcherbakova is second, Sofia Muravyeva is third

Kamila Valieva with an advantage of 9 points confidently leads after the short program at the Russian Championships in St. Petersburg. The second place is occupied by Anna Shcherbakova, the third – by Sofia Muravyeva.

At the Ice Arena "Yubileiny" Kamila Valieva demonstrated brilliant skating to the "In Memoriam" by composer Kirill Richter, performing 3A, 3F, 3L + 3T, all

rotations and track to the 4th level. The world junior champion scored 90.38 points for the ride and after the performance said:

- There is always something to strive for, skating can always be developed, no matter what level you have, where you perform and what points you score. Today I made an intermediate option between "maximum" and "almost good," said the athlete, who performed under the first starting number.

- It's a little exciting to skate first and open competitions, because you only have time before six minutes to somehow get yourself started. You go out, warm up, and have literally a minute and twenty seconds to get up on the program. But I think today I coped, - added Camila.

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Anna Shcherbakova also gave a confident ride for "Dangerous Affairs", with 2A, 3F, 3L + 3P, complex rotations and steps. The world champion earned 81.46 points.

- Overall, I'm happy with the rental. This is just the second start with this production, I wanted to show how we improved it - said Anna. - The image is very interesting, invented by Daniil Markovich (Gleichenhaus). At the beginning of the program, I pull out a string and it's like I'm playing it. I try to convey this with movements and plastics.

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The debutant of the adult championship of Russia Sofia Muravyeva began her program "Ne me quitte pas" with a chic 3A, performed 3F and cascade 3L + 3T. The figure skater lost a point for the late adoption of the starting pose and received 80.87 points.

https://www.fsrussia.ru/files/docs/competitons/2122/rusnat2122_comm1.pdf

Commenting on her debut, Sonia noted:

- The goal at the Russian Championship is to perform cleanly, to show 100% of yourself. I really want to compete with adults, I feel that I am ready. When I rolled back the program, I was glad that everything was clean, but I tried to restrain my emotions so as not to spill them out and leave them for tomorrow.

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Sofia Samadelkina,who also participates in the adult national championship for the first time, began the short program with 3A, but 3F turned out to be a slight undertwist, and the athlete takes 4th place (76.74).

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The bronze medalist of the World and European Championships Alexandra Trusova made a mistake on 3A and is fifth (74.21).

- Of course, I was upset that the Axel did not work, - the athlete admitted. - The question of whether to jump it or not was not discussed, I still wanted to do it.

Alexandra explained that at the tournament in America, where she performed at the beginning of the season, she could not perform this difficult jump, since she was performing with an injury, it was painful to do it.

- And now it's fine, I had to try.

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Another debutante of the adult championship Adelia Petrosyan skated her program cleanly and closes the top six with a score of 73.79 points.

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The 2015 world and European champion, silver medalist of the 2021 World Championship Elizaveta Tuktamysheva confidently entered her crown 3A, but the jump did not work and the next element - the 3L + 3T cascade, unfortunately, was with a double toe loop.

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- Most likely, nerves had an impact - a very important start. I haven't fallen off the axel in a very long time. I flew out very well, as usual, but ahead of time I thought that everything was done, I began to open up ... It's very different from me, an atypical mistake," Lisa explained.

Press conference after the short program: