Mikhail Kolyada won the Russian Figure Skating Championship - video performance. Makar Ignatov

Figure skaters this December are divided into three categories: healthy and ready, injured or ill, but decided to take the risk and come to the Russian championship, and completely sick who are not able to endure the freaky tournament load.

The current champion of the country and Europe did not make it to Chelyabinsk Dmitry Alievwho has just had a coronavirus. The whole season we do not see the silver medalist of last year’s championship of Russia and Euro 2020 Arthur Danielyan… He fights injuries. At least a few skaters arrived in the south of the Urals in pain. This and Peter Humennikand Alexander Samarinwho have back problems. “There was a disease” and Mikhail Kolyada, he himself did not specify which one. So healthy guys could be counted quite easily.

In the free program and before the main warm-up, there was someone to look at. First of all, this is Petr Gumennik. He is probably the best in our team for the ability to use his hands during the skate. They are like wings. Perhaps the constant practice of playing the piano helps him. Today he once again demonstrated great component skating, but suddenly he had problems with the triple axle. On the first, he touched the ice with his hand, on the second he simply collapsed. Was under-rotated at a quarter and on one of the quad-salchows. Of course, not the best skating from Peter, but this season is getting more difficult for him due to the constant increase in height and sudden back pain. In such a situation, 7th place is not critical.

Hopes were on Evgeniya Semenenko… But it was definitely not Zhenya’s day. 4 falls … It was terrifying to look at. The whole season he demonstrated stable performances, but by the Czech Republic the fuel ran out.

In the final warm-up, many expected a breakthrough from the world junior champion Andrey Mozalev… And he shook the first two elements – a clear quadruple flip and a cascade of 4-3 sheepskin coats. Then there was the triple rittberger. And then disaster struck. Mozalev practically left the quad-toe loop, but fell down at the last moment. This knocked him off the spirits. Butterfly on the first trixel, falling from the second. If everything went according to plan, then Andrey would definitely beat everyone in terms of technique and jump into the top 3. Not today. In the “kiss and edge” Mozalev even had a nosebleed. He experienced a wild tension.

As always, a super-hot rental under Queen gave Artem Kovalev… He rehabilitated himself for failing at the Rostelecom Cup and showed why he won the first three starts of the season. Yes, somewhere I had to fight for the trips, but he fought. And for the debutant of the Czech Republic, this is a top performance. Although GOE was decently cut for him for three under-rotation in a quarter of a turn. He only lost 0.3 points to the Humennik.

But even more delight was caused by the performance of another newcomer of the adult Russian championship – Mark Kondratyuk… A student of Svetlana Sokolovsky on Thursday showed that he had not come to the main tournament of the year as a passenger. After the short program, the Muscovite was 3rd. And, lo and behold, he managed to keep it. Yes, Mark Kondratyuk has bronze. Could you imagine this before the start of the Czech Republic? Me not. Although his story is somewhat reminiscent of last year’s with Arthur Danielyan. By the way, both of them train at CSKA, only with different specialists. And even their content is similar. Kondratyuk from the ultra-si also jumped two quad-salchows and two trixels. The only gross mistake was a fall on the final jump in a cascade of triple axel – oiler – triple salchow.

169.43 points for free – this is the second result for today. Chic!

The penultimate was the main favorite – Mikhail Kolyada… The main thing to know about his performance is the score. 193.67 points – the bronze level of the World Championship. The Petersburger delighted many. Indeed, the program “Nureyev” is awesome, put it Ilya Averbukh… And this is pure art. For such an excellent skater like Mikhail, this is what you need. But the male loner is not only about skating skills. And the jumping content of Kolyada is prehistoric. Yes, we can be glad that Mishin was able to teach Misha to stably jump the quad-toe loop. Super. And both quads today were made at the top level. But the guys did the same in the 20th century. With this set, Alexey Yagudin won in 2002. And by the way, he performed everything much more confidently. Kolyada also made a mistake on one of the triple axels.

Fans of Kolyada can close their eyes to all this and say that I am finding fault. But it is simply a shame for a person of Kolyada’s level to go to the World Championship with such content. Only Jason Brown can afford to go out without quads at all. But you need to understand that no 190 points (and today it was even 193.67) for such a performance on the world will not be given to Mikhail. I really want to believe that the work on complicating the content is underway, and soon we will see something new. Then the top program will be taken more seriously.

Today, it’s probably just worth rejoicing for Mikhail Kolyada. He won the third title of the champion of Russia, and even with an advantage of 30 points.

Closed the rentals of men at the national championship Although Ignatovsecond after the short program. After the applause given to Kolyada, Rukavitsyn’s student caught his wave. Starting quadruple rittberger on such freedom is something with something. But for some reason the judges were not inspired. Some pitiful “+2” GOE. I can imagine what would have happened if Mikhail Kolyada had done something similar.

And in the future, Makar did not allow rough shoals, but made it possible for the referee team to put cons. Landing from quad toeloops, rib on flip is no better. In an arbitrary, he lost a little to Mark Kondratyuk, but the silver goes to St. Petersburg! It remains for Ignatov to add some more physics, so that he has enough strength for the entire program, and then we will have a top fighter.