“I don’t feel the leg as I did before. I can’t jump as high. I’m working on it with some exercises, but nothing is helping yet.” Niina Petrokina on triple axel after an injury
Niina Petrokina on the start of the season.
original source: sport.err.ee dd. 27th October 2024 by Anu Säarits
Estonian single skater Niina Petrokina has competed in the first two events of the new season. Just a week ago in Nice, France, she finished second and how she’s preparing for the Grand Prix.. Here’s a translation of her comments posted on ERR.
“It’s not yet the best I can do, but I still managed to pull myself together,” Petrokina shared. “I was so nervous before the short program, I don’t even remember the last time I was this stressed. Somehow I managed to compose myself and then performed my best in the short program. I couldn’t do the same in the free skating.”
While she was nine points shy of her personal best in the free skating, she was only a point short in the short program. “The feeling I had when I started the program was somehow so pleasant. I managed to enjoy it and executed each movement as I should have. Everything went so well. Only in the combination jump was there a little shortfall, but I am working on that,” acknowledged Petrokina.
During her performance in Nice where she took silver, she had to adapt to a smaller ice surface, as the roof of the Nice sports hall was leaking rain, and one corner of the ice was marked off with cones. “It actually helped me. You focus more on those cones, making sure you don’t skate or jump on them, and it keeps you composed,” she explained.
Following the competition, during training sessions in Tallinn, Niina felt tired and had to reduce her training loads over four days. “The tests showed that everything was fine, but something was off. I didn’t feel well, I felt like a lazy sausage and didn’t want to do anything, I had no strength, and my head ached. Now, everything is fine,” she admitted.
She also admitted that after braking the fibula in her left leg last December, performing the most difficult jump remains challenging. “Talking about the triple axel, I don’t feel the leg as I did before. I can’t jump as high. I’m working on it with some exercises, but nothing is helping yet,” Petronina shared. “I don’t know if something grew back wrong or I just can’t feel a certain muscle to push upwards. For example, when I do a double axel, I feel like I’m jumping up, but then I look at the video, and it’s such a small jump…”
Niina Petrokina will compete in ISU Grand Prix events in Tokyo and Espoo in the second and third weeks of November.
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