Russian Figure Skating Cup Final

The final of the Russian Figure Skating Cup 2021 will be held from February 26 to March 2 in Moscow. Here's what you need to know about the competition: the dates and venue of the tournament, participants and favorites, rules and future prospects.

Russian Figure Skating Cup final: free skating



The final of the Russian Figure Skating Cup is the final major national-level tournament for Russian athletes. The main goal of the tournament is to qualify for the extended squad for the next season, as well as to fill the remaining quotas for the 2021 World Cup, which will be held in Stockholm, Sweden from March 22 to 28. The competition will be attended by the most successful figure skaters who performed at the stages of the Russian Cup in the fall, as well as additionally invited members of the main national team of the country.

The tournament is included in the official list of competitions of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR), as well as in the list of competitions of the Ministry of Sports of Russia. According to its results, the best athletes can count on an increase in their sports rank. In addition, the best juniors will take part in the final of the Russian Cup, for whom a separate tournament will be held.



The tournament is scheduled to run from February 26 to March 2. The venue is the Megasport Arena in Moscow. Initially, the competition was to be held from 23 to 27 February in Veliky Novgorod, but due to the increased spectator interest and the unavailability of the sports infrastructure of Novgorod, the Russian Cup final was moved to the capital. Previously, Veliky Novgorod hosted the Russian Cup final for several seasons.

From 26 to 28 February, competitions will be held for adult athletes (category of masters of sports - MS), from 1 to 2 March - a tournament of juniors (candidates for master of sports - CCM).

On February 26 (Friday) , the admission committee, a meeting of judges and a preliminary draw will take place.

February 27 (Saturday) from 15.00 to 16.30 men, masters of sports, will perform with a short program. From 16.45 to 17.45 - performances of sports couples, masters of sports, short program. From 18.05 to 19.35, women, masters of sports, will go on the ice with a short program. The first day of competition will be closed by ice dancers. Their numbers are scheduled for 19.50 - 21.05. Athletes will perform their rhythm dances.

On February 28 (Sunday) the competition will open from 14.00 to 15.45 men, masters of sports, free program. From 16.15 to 17.20 will perform pairs, masters of sports, free program From 17.50 to 19.35 - women's performances, masters of sports, free program. The last dancers will perform again and at 20.00 - 21.30 will show their free dances. An awards ceremony is scheduled after each type of program.

On March 1 (Monday), the first from 13.45 to 15.15 will be young men, candidates for master of sports, short program. From 15.30 to 17.00 - performances by girls, CCM, short program. From 17.15 to 19.10 - performances of couples, CCM, short program. From 19.30 to 21.20 - ice dancing, CCM, rhythm dance. March 2 (Tuesday) at 13.00 - 14.40 - performances of young men, CCM, free program. From 15.00 to 16.40 - performances of girls, CCM, free program. From 17.00 to 19.00 there will be pairs, CCM, free program on the ice. The last to perform from 19.25 to 21.25 will be the athletes in the category of ice dancing, CCM, free dance. As in the MC competitions, after the completion of each type of program (free program / dance), an award ceremony is planned for the prize-winners and winners of the competition.

Participants of the final of the Cup of Russia - 2020/21
The finals of the Russian Figure Skating Cup will be attended by the athletes who have scored the most points in the fall stages of the Russian Cup, which were held in different cities of the country. There were five stages in total, and each athlete had to carry out two different stages. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the increased trauma of the sport and other problems, a number of Russian leaders were unable to take part in one or two stages of the Russian Cup, so they were included in the final composition of the Russian Cup final according to a separate quota for active athletes - members of the Russian national team. This opportunity is provided for by the rules of the FFKKR and the tournament regulations.

The preliminary application of the participants looks like this:
Pair skating: Akopova Karina / Rakhmanin Nikita, Kadyrova Yasmina / Balchenko Ivan, Mishina Anastasia / Gallyamov Alexander, Pavlyuchenko Daria / Khodykin Denis, Panfilova Apollinaria / Rylov Dmitry, Pepeleva Alina / Pleshkov Roman

Men: Aliev Dmitry, Gumennik Petr, Erokhov Alexey, Ignatov Makar, Kovalev Artem, Kondratyuk Mark, Lezheev Artem, Mozalev Andrey, Rukhin Egor, Savosin Roman, Semenenko Evgeny, Yablokov Ilya.

Women: Valieva Kamila, Gulyakova Anastasia, Kostornaya Alena, Nugumanova Elizaveta, Samodurova Sofia, Talalaikina Maria, Tarakanova Anastasia, Tuktamysheva Elizaveta, Usacheva Daria, Frolova Anna, Khromykh Maya, Tsibinova Ksenia.

Ice dancing: Sofya Kartashova / Ilya Karpov, Elizaveta Kirillova / Mark Chegodaev, Ekaterina Mironova / Evgeny Ustenko, Annabelle Morozov / Andrey Bagin, Vlada Pavlenina / Alexander Aleksanyan, Elizaveta Beekeeping / Yegor Kolosovsky, Victoria Sinitsina / Alexandra Trutsalapinovita / Nikitsina Ivan, Shevchenko Sophia / Eremenko Igor.

Russian Figure Skating Cup, final: competition format
The Russian Cup final is a classic figure skating start, where athletes perform short and free programs (in the case of ice dancing, rhythm dance and free dance), and places are distributed according to the sum of points for two types. Refereeing is held according to the official rules of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR), and bonus points that were allowed when evaluating the competition at the stages of the Russian Cup will not be taken into account. From a judicial point of view, the tournament is similar to the Russian figure skating championship, with the exception of the division of participants into two groups - masters of sports (MS), that is, athletes who are over 14 years old and who have fulfilled the required standard for participation in adult competitions, as well as candidates for master sports (CCM) - juniors and juniors 13 years old and younger, or those

From the point of view of the importance of the tournament in the general calendar of competitions of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, the competition will be the last stage of selection for the World Championship, which will be held at the end of March in Sweden. Only those athletes who took first place at the Russian Figure Skating Championship-2021 from December 22 to December 27, 2020 in Chelyabinsk were officially selected for the tournament in Stockholm. The two remaining of the three maximum possible quotas of Russia at the World Cup will compete at the end of the Russian Cup final in ice dancing, pair skating and women's singles. In the men's singles, only one of the two quotas is played out, since at the end of the 2019 World Cup in Japan among men, the Russians were not able to take high enough places to win the maximum quota for three people.





Final of the Russian Cup, who will miss the competition in Megasport: Trusova, Zagitova, Medvedeva and Kolyada
Many famous Russian figure skaters and leaders of the national team will not take part in the final of the Russian Cup, which will be held from February 26 to March 2. Not a single reigning champion of the country will come to Megasport. After the decision of the FFKKR to automatically qualify the athletes who took first place in the Chechen Republic-2021, the figure skaters-champions of Russia lost their motivation to participate in the final of the National Cup. So there will be no Anna Shcherbakova , the sports couple of Evgeny Tarasov / Vladimir Morozov, the dance duet of Alexander Stepanov / Ivan Bukin, as well as the single skater Mikhail Kolyada.

In addition, for a number of personal reasons and circumstances, the competition will be missed by Aleksandra Trusova , the sports pair Aleksandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky, the dance pair Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureiro. These athletes took second places at the Russian Championship in Chelyabinsk and have not yet officially won a ticket to the World Cup in Stockholm. Nevertheless, according to official data, they continue to recover from injuries and illnesses, so they will not be able to compete in Megasport.

Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva will not be in Moscow . Olympic champion Alina Zagitova, even before the start of the season, announced that she did not plan to participate in official starts and would concentrate on near-sports events and shows. Two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedev, after returning from Canadian coach Brian Orser to Eteri Tutberidze , with whom she had previously worked for more than ten years, never went on the ice under the guidance of a new old coach. She is recovering from damage. This season, Evgenia will definitely not take part in competitions, but will take to the ice in several ice shows.



Due to the absence of Shcherbakova, Trusova, Zagitova and Medvedeva, the main heat in the most popular type of competition in recent years - the women's singles - should be expected between Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alena Kostornaya . Ward of Alexei Mishin from St. Petersburg and student of Evgeni Plushenkofrom Moscow are the main contenders for, probably, the last, third quota for the World Championship in Stockholm. Skaters have roughly equal chances of success, as well as similar problems. In the fall, they survived the coronavirus and recovered hard. The only difference is that Tuktamysheva, after an illness, has already performed at the Russian Championship and the Channel One Cup, and also restored the triple axel. Kostornaya has not yet performed ultra-s in training and has never entered the ice in official starts. The Russian Cup final will be her first tournament since November, when she finished second at the Rostelecom Grand Prix stage. And then it was Tuktamysheva who lost.

Potentially, Anastasia Gulyakova, Sofya Samodurova, Anna Frolova and Elizaveta Nugumanova can impose competition in the battle for the world championship between Kostornaya and Tuktamysheva. But perhaps the chances of the latter are slightly higher than theoretical. At the same time, the main favorites to win the tournament will be two young students of Eteri Tutberidze - Kamila Valieva and Daria Usacheva . Valieva and Usacheva are not yet eligible to compete in adult international competitions, since according to the rules of the International Skating Union (ISU) they must be at least 15 years old on July 1 of the current year. At the same time, according to Russian rules, they are already performing for adults, and their results, as a rule, are higher than the average results for this season for both Tuktamysheva and Kostornaya. Like all the other girls. Maya Khromykh , the third junior of Tutberidze, will also perform at the FKR , but she is unlikely to be able to claim the top three.





In the men's singles, the main contenders for victory are Dmitry Aliev , Makar Ignatov and Mark Kondratyuk. If Aliyev and Ignatov are experienced skaters with ultra-si elements, but unstable and not in the best shape, then Kondratyuk is a young athlete who has never performed at adult international starts and without super difficult jumps. But right now, he has the best male results in the country. Also, talented young athletes, Andrey Mozalev, Petr Gumennik and Evgeny Semenenko, will take part in the race for medals.

In pair skating, pairs Daria Pavlyuchenko / Denis Khodykin and Anastasia Mishina / Alexander Gallyamov will fight for the victory. In ice dancing, the figure skaters of Alexandra Zhulin, Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov, will most likely win, the duets Annabel Morozov / Andrey Bagin and Sofia Shevchenko / Igor Eremenko are most likely in the top three.

Among juniors, Sofia Akatieva and Sofya Samodelkina will fight for first place, among contenders for medals - Elizaveta Berestovskaya, Adelia Petrosyan, Veronika Zhilina and Sofya Muravyova. Among juniors, Andrey Kutovoy and Maxim Belyavsky stand out, in pair skating - Kostyukovich Polina / Bryukhanov Alexey and Artemyeva Yulia / Nazarychev Mikhail. In ice dancing - the following duets: Ushakova Arina / Nekrasov Maxim, Khavronina Irina / Chirizano Dario, Shanaeva Elizaveta / Narizhny David.