Russian Nationals 2016. Short dance [video]

Russian Ice dance drama is gaining a momentum. The results of the short dance was actually a bit surprising.

1.Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov – 73,96 (36.70+37.26). The score is huge but it’s a National Championship and we all know that it’s no need to take those scores too seriously. The twizzles look a bit scary. But they definitely have the best short dance at the Russian team. Strong, solid and beautiful. Nikita’s comment:

I can’t restrain myself and I want to say that today was very cool to skate! We have experienced a real buzz. Yesterday, there were many complaints about the quality of the ice. But even not on the best ice we had a great practice. This enabled us to feel more confident this morning.

I don’t know what is a perfect skate. The skate may be clean but not perfect. Therefore, today we had a good skate with a New Year’s mood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIjMttXYCxs

2. Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev – 70.21 (33.97+36.24). Actually I think after Gorshkov interview where he openly said that the wrong pair got into the Grand-prix Final and that Bobrova and Soloviev is not the first pair, they couldn’t expect a lot from the Russian Nationals. But the FFKR still needs them to win back the three spots for Worlds back. They are pretty solid and consistent technically but the dance……I don’t know how they managed to do THIS with such strong and winning music.

Today the best skate didn’t happened. The fatigue after a busy schedule of the last few weeks affects. The Grand Prix Final in Barcelona took a lot of energy. We just had no time to pay more attention to one program and less to other. The only thing we could is to keep the shape, what we were doing. – Dmitri said.

For us it doesn’t matter that the Russian Nationals is the selection for the European Championships. We tried to enjoy the performance in every competition and to improve the dance before each start. Today I had some blots on twizzles, wasn’t able to handle on 100%. We won’t complain about fatigue. The last strengths in this year we will spend tomorrow. – Ekaterina added

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwEbTcff50

3. Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin – 68.56 (33.45+35.11). Not the most impressive short dance, the twizzles almost don’t have an ice coverage (the first section looks like a spin). But this duo don’t want to surrender without a fight and I respect them for this. When there is a chance to cling to the medal they don’t miss it. That’s a great and important feature in sport.

We’re very satisfied with the scores, third place is super! We would like to gain a foothold, but we actually came here with a different task – to show all that we have gained after our last start in Japan. We have changed a lot in a short dance, especially the entire second half – foxtrot. I hope it is better than was. – Ivan said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr8jgvKzxqw

4. Elena Ilinykh / Ruslan Zhiganshin – 66,75 (32,67+35,08). Mistakes continue to haunt this pair. A fall just out of nowhere. They also changed a lift…..can’t say that this one is better. I realy don’t understand all those changes before the important starts. They make the task for the skaters only harder when they need feel comfortable. And the dance…It won’t look better, the only thing they could do it polished it technically, that’s the only way. But the gap with the third place is not so big and they have a good free dance. So, they definitely have chances to be third overall and go to European Championships.

It’s pity, I didn’t even have time to understand what happened. Of course, we’re upset that it happened but the coaches have supported us, they said that the people fall even from springboards and then win the Olympics. These words calmed us a bit, but we still know our mistakes, such mustn’t happen.

Apparently, we haven’t spent yet all the needed amount of mistakes to skate perfect. The scores are absolutely adequate. The mistake wasn’t on the element. If not for the fall, we would have got a couple of points more. Anyway, I was thinking about something my, maidenly. – Elena said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJpVzTjPqR4

Here’s also the results of the men’s short program.

Related topics: Alexandra Stepanova Ivan Bukin, Ekaterina Bobrova Dmitri Soloviev, Elena Ilinykh Ruslan Zhiganshin, ice dance, National Championship, Team Russia, Victoria Sinitsina Nikita Katsalapov