Lisa Tuktamysheva

(12 December 2014)  The dominance of the Russian teenagers in worldwide ladies figure skating became obvious again in the short program at the Grand Prix Final. The fact alone that four of the six qualified competitors are from Russia is a strong sign of their superiority. In Barcelona, there was even a complete Russian sweep because skaters from this country took the first four places even if they were not faultless. The difference between first and sixth place are only around seven points, therefore everybody still has the chance to win on Saturday.

In her eighth competition of this season, Lisa Tuktamysheva took the lead with 67.52 points. Nobody else has done so many competitions yet. But at the beginning of the season she had said that after not competing for some time and after several injuries, including a broken foot in springtime 2014, she needed time to get back to the feeling of competition and therefore wanted to do as many as possible. The student of Alexei Mishin in St. Petersburg began her dynamic short program to the famous Bolero by Maurice Ravel with an outstanding combination of two triple toe loops with one arm above her head on the second toe loop. Six of the nine judges awarded this element with a +3 and three with a +2, so she collected 10.10 points. Then she stepped out of the triple lutz, but the other elements were excellent again, including a very dynamic step sequence (level 4, three times +3). Her components reached an average of 7.9.

Right after the competition she commented: “Every competition you start all over again, but my adrenaline was going down a little bit every time. Here, though, I knew I was competing against the strongest girls in the world of figure skating and I was scared the smallest mistake would move me down the rankings. So I had the motivation to skate clean in this short program. It has helped me to skate this much because I think after Finlandia and Oberstdorf I was still not ready. I was ready physically but not emotionally.”

Later she added: “I have fallen in love with Barcelona. I walked around the city centre and it is beautiful. Maybe it helped my skating today. Before I left for the competition I was a bit ill and maybe that showed a bit today but I’m glad I managed to push through the program. When I saw the marks I was so happy. There was a mistake on the Lutz but I saw the replay and it was a good jump so it was a shame. But I’m glad I managed to pull myself together.”

The European champion Julia Lipnitskaia sits on second place with 66.24 points, just one point behind Tuktamysheva. Skating to music of “Megapolis” by Bel Suono, the student of Eteri Tutberidze began with a very good combination of triple lutz and triple toeloop which she has recently added again to her repertoire. Her triple flip got an edge call and therefore scored only 2.67 points. Two of her spins were outstanding because of her acrobat-like body positions. For the layback spin, all nine judges gave a +3. Her components reached an average of 7.9, like those of Tuktamysheva.

“I was much more confident and technically stronger today than in my previous competitions”, she said. “But unfortunately I lost points on the triple flip because of an edge call. I need to pull onto the correct edge on the free program and make sure I don’t do it again. This was an exception for me. I tried a new position on the combination spin and travelled a little so that’s another thing to fix. We’ve got lots of (good) Russians in all disciplines; dance and pairs too. It’s not just ladies. It’s only the boys lagging behind. Hopefully they will catch up soon. The Grand Prix Final is a serious competition, with serious competitors and I felt I needed to prove something. I added the triple Lutz-triple toe because of that.”

Elena Radionova, the reigning Junior World Champion, is third with 63.89 points. She also began with a good combination of triple Lutz and triple toe loop, but later fell on the triple loop. Her double axel was a bit small, but landed on one foot. Spins and steps were very good again. She had chosen Spanish music (“De me vera te fuistes” by Pepe Romero” which got an extra applause by the 5.000 spectators, many of who had come from all over the world.  

Later she explained: “I can’t say I am satisfied. I don’t know yet what happened (on the loop), I haven’t talked yet with my coach. I felt like in any other competition. I was a bit sick before, but thank God I am feeling much better now. But maybe because of this I wasn’t able to skate a good short until the end. But I wasn’t tired on the triple loop. I was absolutely calm when I went out, maybe I was a bit nervous inside. In the past season I maybe felt a little less responsibility, because it was the Olympic season and I knew that I was not eligible anyway.”

Anna Pogorilaya, also from Russia, is fourth, earning 61.34 points. She skated to a modern version of Albinoni’s Adagio. Her triple lutz at the beginning was a hit shaky, therefore she did not add a combination. Later she added a triple toeloop to her triple loop, but fell on the second jump. She commented on her fall: “I just have to switch my mind off, and don’t think about anything and only enjoy my skating. Also today’s training wasn’t great, but yesterday it was quite good. I went into the Lutz relaxed, and then I started to think and got tense.

Rika Hongo from Japan was the alternate for US skater Gracie Gold who had withdrawn a few days before because of a stress fracture in her left leg. She was the only skater to perform a clean program (61.10 points) which included a good combination of two triple toe loops and three level 4 spins, but her presentation is a bit less strong than the one of the Russian teenagers. She said: “I achieved my goal, getting more than 60 points. I’m very happy. And skating with the top skaters makes me feel good, so this led to my success, a personal best. And I was helped by the support and applause of the Japanese fans.”

Ashley Wagner of Artesia, Southern California sits on sixth place with 60.24 points. Skating to Spartacus by Aram Khatchaturian, she had planned to begin her program with a combination of triple flip and triple toe loop. But after stepping out of the flip she could not add a second jump. Later she added a small double toe loop to her triple loop. Her three spins had level 4, and the first one (a flying sit spin) was excellent. She said: “My program today just shows how much you need a triple-triple combination to be competitive at this level. The quality of the program was really good. The only thing which was lacking was the triple triple combination. My spins and footwork saved the day for me, my second mark was high and that’s the positive I can take away. These younger girls are so strong technically and I’ve got them on the second mark but I’ve got to have the triple-triple to get to them. The program as a whole was solid but it just goes to show that now with these younger girls, you need a triple-triple jump to be competitive. It’s something I’ll need tomorrow.”