Semenenko : It was the day of Russian recruits at the pre-Olympic European Championships. Three eighteen-year-old debutants – Andrey Mozalev, Mark Kondratyuk and Evgeny Semenenko – did not allow themselves to falter in the face of responsibility and each other. They showed almost the same highest scores, won all the small championship medals in the short program and on Friday will continue to sort things out in the free program. And at stake is not only the medals of the European Championship. Which of the recruits will go to Beijing 2022?
…But the pre-Olympic European Championship in Tallinn has already been. Three Olympic cycles ago, before Vancouver 2010. And Estonia thundered precisely in men’s single skating: Evgeni Plushenko returned to the ice after three and a half years after the victorious Turin-2006.
Plushenko was hungry, and three years of refraining from competitive starts threw all the energy of the athlete onto the ice of Tallinn. And – yes, Alexei Mishin’s phrase, which later became famous, sounded: Plushenko did not lose the killer instinct. Europe saw it.
The then champion of Russia, the debutant of the European Championship, 17-year-old Ksenia Makarova (who eventually became the ninth – imagine, our women had such times that we very quickly forgot about) was in shock: “Did you see Plushenko’s look? You can’t lose with that attitude. I want the same.”
What did Europe 2022 see in men’s singles on the first day of competition? Great performances from Russian single skaters. At first, Mark Kondratyuk did not allow himself to make mistakes and, having performed two quadruple jumps, he threw a bombshell into the hall. He has already done this, Mark knows how to explode in emotions on the ice. The judges recorded a personal best of 99.06 points – 14.27 points higher than the previous best result. A debut is a debut!
Then Evgeny Semenenko took to the ice. And in his history on the ice there has not yet been a European Championship, although there was a World Championship, where he was unexpectedly entrusted with winning Olympic quotas last year, together with Mikhail Kolyada. Zhenya scored 99.04 points in Tallinn, only two hundredths separated him from Mark’s score. And he beat his personal record by 10 points.
And he won the short program – and received the first small gold medal of the adult championship – Andrey Mozalev. Tallinn is a place of good luck for him. Two years ago, at the World Junior Championships, the last figure skating tournament before the pandemic, Andrei became the winner. And in the very first adult season, he said that he expected to win the Russian Championship – at least. But to the stars – only through thorns, I had to linger on the way because of the struggle with various problems.
In today’s Tallinn Andrey scored 99.76 points. He won the short program both in technique and in components. And he recorded a new personal record: more than 15 points higher than the previous one.
We choke on positive and such delightful emotions and remember the distant year 2001 – it was then that our single skaters lined up after the short program in the same way: Evgeni Plushenko, Alexei Yagudin and Alexander Abt.
And you can say as much as you want – our skaters have no rivals in this championship, the European level of figure skating has fallen … (Yes, it has fallen. As for rivals – not quite so, you can always find them, especially if you lose to yourself.) But we saw beautiful short program rentals of three Russian single skaters at once. Indeed, we are bored. After all, they saw the potential all the time, but as if in theory: this one is good and that one too … But practice diligently overturned expectations. And not one “good” has already made it to the national team. Because he did not do his where he could and should have.
So they lost – even the most persistent of us – faith in the ability of talented single skaters to gather when necessary. In the fact that some of ours have that same killer instinct. But after such a short program – in triplicate! – even realizing that each of them still needs to endure the free program, we rejoice at the Estonian pedestal of Russian recruits. As Kirill Davydenko, Andrey Mozalev’s coach, said, “we enjoy the moment, we enjoy the day.” That pleasure from sports is here and now.
Sport and forecast are great antagonists. How will the free program in the men’s single skating at the European Championships end? There are rivals, yes. And Maurice Kvitelashvili, and Daniel Grassl, and the same Denis Vasiliev from Latvia, who scored 90 points without trying to perform a quadruple jump. The Italian is fifth after the short program, but managed to show a clean quadruple lutz. He lost to the leaders in components and lost about four points due to technical errors, but he is dangerous.
And Maurice – just tears the souls of the fans. We already don’t know which of the leading three to give preference to, and then there’s our native Georgian. Kvitelashvili skated brilliantly in the short program: quad salchow cascade and triple toe loop, triple Axel, solo quad toe loop. The judges saw an under-rotation on the axel, and he immediately pulled on the very backlog from ours.
But if everything remains to our common pleasure: Andrey, Mark and Zhenya occupy the podium, then (we are running a little ahead) both the fans and the federation (first of all) are in for a headache. And very unpleasant, the other it does not happen. And who goes to Beijing? In the team tournament in which we need a gold medal, who will compete?
Mark Kondratyuk is the champion of Russia, there are no questions here, the main thing is that there are no questions for the free program. Evgeny Semenenko got to Tallinn by the decision of the coaching council for his reliability in previous performances, he was fourth at the national selection. And Andrey Mozalev is the bronze medalist of the Russian championship, but (he was originally replaced by Semenenko) performs in Tallinn only because Mikhail Kolyada, the silver medalist of the Russian championship, starred. Four applicants for a trip to Beijing 2022.
Here’s the plot for you. Grandfather (Mikhail Kolyada has already competed at the Olympic Games, and in the team tournament, for which he still “arrives”, too) and recruits. For Russian single men’s skating, its future, however, is a very optimistic story. Because there is a choice, albeit not an easy one, but it is still better than none. And the choice will have to be made immediately after the end of the European Championship. Olympic applications must be submitted in mid-January.
Read Also : In the USA, figure skaters Tutberidze were compared with “sour milk”
Follow us on Google News Asia Times Now page for faster updates.
