For the second season in a row, Alexandra Trusova is desperately fighting for a clean skate with quadruple jumps.
At the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, she announced five quads in the free program, but fell twice and made a serious mistake on the cascade. Although after the disastrous short (12th place) she could only take risks.
Trusova went out in an unusual warm-up for herself - after a short one, she found herself in the depths of the protocol and opened the third starting group.
Sasha and her coach Evgeni Plushenko were determined - a minimum of words, complete concentration in their views.
The most complex content is in many ways a necessary measure. In the short, Trusova did not go for the triple axel, but the main problem was a sudden mistake on the cascade. To fight for the bronze, three quads would have been enough for her, but Sasha went to Plushenko for victories, which were few during the season.
The second factor, which probably influenced the decision of the coach and the figure skater, is the strong training that Trusova already conducted in Sweden. During the free run, she really rolled out five quads, but she hardly paid attention to other elements.
The competitive free skate left a strange feeling: Alexandra started with a clean quadruple flip. After the revision, the judges had questions to the rib. Often Trusova started with a fall, so such a start was encouraging. Not for long. Already on the quadruple salchow, she fell. This was followed by an ideal cascade of a quadruple lutz - a triple toe loop, and then Sasha crumbled.
As soon as the program ended, a preliminary score for the technique - 97.80 points was displayed on the scoreboard in the corner of the screen. When the judges scrutinized all the mistakes, the total for the elements dropped to 88.04.
The main question is whether the risk was justified?
In fact, as such, Trusova did not show the program - before the first jumps, she did not pay attention to the ligaments, as if the entire rental was just preparation for quads. In the second part, Sasha seemed to remember that, in fact, music was playing, and no one canceled the assessment for the components, and showed emotions.
Jumping mistakes deprived Trusov of the main trump card - technique. What is the point of putting so many quads if the leaders sometimes gain 152 points without Ultra C?
The tactics that Plushenko and his student followed in the Russian championship looks smarter. Then they abandoned the scattering of quads in favor of purity - and the score for the technique was more than 97 points, even with two quads. Yes, it was an internal start. But at least Trusova skated without falling, and the program looked integral, and not nervous, patchwork, as it is today.
However, Trusova does not agree to sacrifice superelements, even if they did not work out for the umpteenth time:
“Five quads? I went here with this set and was not going to do one quadruple less. In any scenario of the short program."