Russian Cup (2nd Stage) - Rostelecom 2020-2021

In Russian men's skating, after Plushenko and Yagudin, there were many bright skaters, but all of them lacked stability and psychological stability. And finally, we got a guy who doesn't reckon with the authorities and is ready to win at all tournaments in a row.





At the stage of the Russian Cup in Moscow, 17-year-old Artyom Kovalev bypassed more promoted and deserved rivals and brought the Angela Plushenko academy another big victory. Maybe it's time for Eugene to stop climbing where he is not welcome, and to take seriously the training of his young and talented student.



In just two months, Artyom Kovalev from a little-known junior, without serious results, turned into one of the most promising and curious singles in Russia. It was the ward of Alexander Volkov who brought the Plushenko Academy the first truly great victory.

Kovalev's sensational success at the first stage of the Russian Cup was perceived by many with skepticism. The competition in Syzran was not the most powerful, and the main favorites Makar Ignatov and Roman Savosin made many mistakes. Artyom himself, after an excellent rental of the short program, performed poorly in the free program, which gave reason to consider his victory as luck. Even Plushenko, in a congratulatory voice message, called the first place of Kovalev "pure luck".



Kovalev had to prove the non-coincidence of his first triumph at the adult level already at the second stage, where he was again not considered the main contender for first place. In Moscow, the main attention was focused on the European Championship medalist Alexander Samarin and the junior world championship medalist Peter Gumennik . And the leader after the short program was Alexei Mishin 's student Evgeny Semenenko , who succeeded in a good attempt at the quadruple Salchow. Kovalev, however, underwent this jump and remained second.

In the free program, Semenenko could not cope with the excitement - he fell from the quadruple toe loop and did not twist the triple axel. Kovalev, to the applause of Plushenko, landed both quadruple Salchows at the side and won the second in a row victory at the Russian Cup stage. It is interesting that Alexander Samarin, who is experiencing health problems, lost only one and a half points to Kovalev without a single quadruple. Another favorite of the public, Pyotr Gumennik, was able to improve for the failure in the short program and took third place.



The 17-year-old student of the Plushenko Academy created a sensation again and for the second time in three weeks climbed to the top of the podium, and the awards ceremony in Moscow was not without a curiosity. When Kovalev, Samarin and Gumennik received medals and certificates, the announcer invited the winner's coach Alexander Volkov to reward, but there was no specialist at the rink. Only a few seconds later, Volkov left the rink and with a brisk step went for the bouquet he was supposed to.

It is clear that rewarding the winners' coaches is a common tradition for all competitions within the Russian Cup, but in this case it turned out to be especially symbolic. It was Volkov who saw the potential in the five-year-old Artyom, helped him survive growth problems and refute the disappointing forecasts of other coaches. Kovalev trusted Volkov so much that he followed him from Khrustalny to Plushenko's academy. And he was right.

Unexpectedly for everyone, the best skater of Russia at the beginning of the season was found among the Plushenko Angels. Of course, Eugene did not raise him from scratch, but he also did not entice him from anyone. He simply created comfortable conditions for Artyom and his mentor, in which the talent of an artistic and emotional guy began to flourish before our eyes. Plushenko himself, by the way, is listed among the trainers of Kovalev and actively helps him in the training process.