Unpredictable Performances at the French Grand Prix: Mikhail Shaydorov’s Historic Element and Controversial Judging

But it is much worse than the Russians.

Men’s singles skating is a complete roller coaster, and we’re already used to it. Technical complexity and entertainment are often compensated by instability or even failure. Something similar happened at the 3rd stage of the Grand Prix in Angers. Over two days, the standings suffered an upheaval that is difficult compared to anything. None of the 12 participants had perfect performances, and they went to the podium because of the mistakes of their opponents. But against all this, someone brought down the historical element – however, the judges decided to condemn his performance rather than evaluate it…

It’s about him Mikhail Shaydorov. In the short program, the skipper dropped the starting quadruple lutz, the rest of the jumping elements turned out clean, but the referees got the win on the spins. The next “Dune” of this season did not even break 80 points and left the Kazakh athlete within 6. In principle, he had nothing to lose, so in mixed doubles he promised to enter the waterfall with a star the next day – a trixel-quadrilateral curve. even Ilya Malinin I didn’t want to do this within the competition!

Shaidorov kept his promise and completed the historic combination. On the scoreboard, the element was initially identified as a trixel-trixel sheepskin coat, because of this, the subsequent elements were reset to zero. But at the end of the program, the judges reconsidered the scoring. However, other quads fell into the negative zone – this was due to under-rotation and unclear exits. It seems that Mikhail lost too much strength on a certain element. The judges assessed the performance harshly: only 151.97 points. Less than 2 points were needed for bronze…

Getty Images

On the other hand, I received generous benefits Andrew Torgasheva from the USA, who climbed to the 3rd line of the podium. At the same time, he made many mistakes, and he could not boast of the complexity of the content, but the factor of a strong alliance worked. For two rentals – two quads. Agree, it is not impressive for a single man. In both programs, the cascade skater performed a three-dimensional loop flip-triple toe with spots, but the judges did little to deny the element. In the free program, in addition to leaving imperfect from the jumps, the American lost his circuit in the top jump and he only achieved a basic level of circulation together. A total of 233.64 points was enough for the Grand Prix medal – the first prize at this level in his career.

Getty Images

The competition took money Cosiro Shimada with a total equivalent of 233 points – they were separated from Torgashev by two tenths. Student Stefan Lambiel good in presentation, but technically behind the top of the world. In each of the skates, the skater landed a quad curve, but in the triple combinations he made mistakes, moreover, ones that affected the integrity of the skate. Nevertheless, with less competition, or almost no competition, the abundance of mistakes did not stop us from capturing the podium.

Getty Images

Leaders after the first day of competition Alasdair Selevko And Boyan Jin Free programs failed. As good as the figure skater from the People’s Republic of China skated in the short skate, literally nothing worked out in the free skate. Almost all jumps are in a negative, stable, idle position. The 11th result on the second day dropped the athlete to the final 8th position. Boyan gave us such an emotional move… And he wasn’t the only one who tried in this regard.

Platform destination Adam Xiao Him Fa has decided to repeat the 2024 World Cup setting. In the short program, he managed a combination of quadruple curl and triple toe curl, but the quadruple toe curl and triple ax ended in a fall. In addition, the judges threw out one of the spins. All in all, it was a failure for the World Championship bronze medalist. But he had already climbed out of such a “bottom”, right at that very world championship.

One feels that the French wanted to arrange an absent confrontation with Ilya Malinin, replacing the short one with a rap composition shortly before the competition. A kind of rap battle in a figure, but, as we can see, it is still unequal. The desire to “show” with a variety of short ones during the season resulted in 8th place after the first day of the competition.

In the free program, Adam was already more limited and stricter. His variation on “Dune” was interesting, but not incredible – butterflies on a quad-toe loop and a Salchow in a cascade with a trixel. The skate earned only 171.68 points, but in the current situation the athlete was able to make up for his short-term failure and took gold, moreover, with a gap of 13+ points over his opponents. Despite the positive result, this is not Fa the last season with conceptual productions and goosebumps. The thoughts are scary, but this is the beginning of the season and, of course, the skater still has time to correct mistakes and get in shape.

Getty Images

And they also say that the men’s singles team did not suffer at all without the Russians. After watching one of the top international starts in the first half of the season, you can’t say that…

French Grand Prix Grand Prix. Men. A short program

1. Boyang Jin (PRC) – 88.12
2. Alasdair Selevko (Estonia) – 85.73
3. Kazuki Tomono (Japan) – 83.45
4. Andrew Torgashev (United States) – 81.54
5. Koshiro Shimada (Japan) – 80.42.

Grand Prix Grand Prix of France. Men. Free program

1. Adam Hsieh Him Fah (France) – 171.68
2. Nicholas Memola (Italy) – 158.91
3. Koshiro Shimada (Japan) – 153.42
4. Andrew Torgashev (United States) – 152.10
5. Mikhail Shaydorov (Kazakhstan) – 151.97.

French Grand Prix Grand Prix. Men. The final situation

1. Adam Hsieh Him Fah (France) – 246.58
2. Koshiro Shimada (Japan) – 233.84
3. Andrew Torgashev (United States) – 233.64
4. Mikhail Shaydorov (Kazakhstan) – 231.86
5. Kazuki Tomono (Japan) – 231.48.