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National team veterans Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov started the season with a victory
Russian figure skaters won three medals at the fourth stage of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series in Paris. Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov won the sports pairs competition. Julia Obertas - Sergei Slavnov became bronze medalists in the same event. Sergei Dobrin completed the top three in the singles tournament. Russian athletes did not take part in the other two types of the program - women's skating and ice dancing.Despite the cautious forecasts of the President of the All-Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev that this season, due to the renewal of the team, there will be no particular hope of winning prizes, at the last two stages of the Grand Prix the Russians won five medals - two gold and three bronze. Following the dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, who distinguished themselves a week ago in China, the authors of a new sensation were Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov.
Their mere appearance on the ice was a surprise to many. After all, at the March 2006 World Championships, Lyudmila Velikova’s students officially announced the end of their sports career and said goodbye to figure skating. However, as it turned out, not for long. The leadership of the domestic federation asked Maria and Alexey to return to amateur ice, since it turned out that none of the participants in other sports pairs were yet ready to take on the role of leaders. 28-year-old Petrova and 35-year-old Tikhonov began preparing for the new season, and at the same time participated in the Channel One television project “Stars on Ice”, where the famous musician Igor Butman became Masha’s partner, Alexey entered into a duet with Lenkom Theater actress Anna Bolshova.
Any business has its pros and cons. New roles and participation in a television project, without a doubt, took away quite a lot of emotions and strength from the athletes. From this point of view, the current preparation for the season was fundamentally different from the previous one, since there were night training, and frequent travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and the skaters’ coach could not accompany them everywhere. Nevertheless, Maria and Alexey presented a new free program to Beethoven’s music “Moonlight Sonata” in Paris. The short program - to Handel's Sarabande - was left the same.
From the very first minutes of the couple’s appearance on the ice, it was evident that their skating during that short time of participation in the television project had become more vibrant, free and artistic. And even the mistakes made in both programs (in the short program, Maria landed on both feet after the first jump, and in the free program, Alexey touched the ice with his hand, and they did not fit into the music), did not allow the opponents to beat the Russians. As a result, Petrova and Tikhonov scored 174.27 points, which is almost 10 points more than the Americans Rena Inoui and John Baldwin.
It must be admitted that in Paris the leaders of our pair skating had no serious rivals other than the Americans. Yes, and they applied for this role with a stretch. At the moment, it is mainly the Chinese who set the tone in this type of skating, but not a single duet from the Middle Kingdom has been entered in the French stage. This is understandable, because a week ago three Chinese pairs started at home competitions in Nanjing. The Americans Inoui-Baldwin have already won the Grand Prix in the USA this season. However, their skating has always been unstable. The partner often let his partner down with jumps, and the crowning element - a three-turn throw, due to which they “left”, since they earned up to 10 points - did not always work out, which is what we witnessed this time. It is better to remain silent about the artistry of the couple. Even the music of the great Puccini did not bring them out of their “mechanical” state.
As for Obertas and Slavnov, returning to their former coach has not yet brought results. While Lyudmila Velikova's students somehow managed to master the short program, the free program - to the music of Edvin Marton - had difficulty getting to the end. And it’s not even about the mistakes made, although this is an important point. The general impression was that the athletes were very tense on the ice, and their programs looked “raw” and “untrained.” Nevertheless, the weak composition of the opponents gave them the opportunity to start the season with bronze.
For the first time in his career at the stages of the Grand Prix series, Zhanna Gromova’s student Sergei Dobrin, whose idol in sports is Irina Slutskaya, also won an award of the same value. After the short program, Dobrin was fourth, Klimkin third. However, according to the results of two programs - short and free - Ilya did not get into the prizes, and Dobrin set a personal record, scoring 193.50 points. The stumbling block for the veteran of our team was jumping. Klimkin did not hide the fact that after a leg injury received before the start of the season, he did not get into optimal shape. The third Russian participant, Andrey Gryazev, finished the tournament in seventh place, losing to the winner by more than 50 points. Even the psychologist Rudolf Zagainov, who accompanied the student of Elena Vodorezova and Tatyana Tarasova in Paris, did not add to Gryazev’s self-confidence. A talented skater, who was predicted to have a fantastic future, was unstable this time too.
The victory at the home stage was celebrated by 22-year-old Frenchman Brian Joubert - 231.08. Working with a new team - coach Jean-Christophe Simon, two-time silver medalist of the European Championship, and choreographer Kurt Browning - clearly benefited the native of Poitiers. A new free program, set to the music of the Metallica group and a fragment from the musical Romeo and Juliet, highlighted new facets of the Frenchman’s talent. Joubert's skating became powerful and his jumping became more confident. And he himself seemed to feel strength. It was not for nothing that before going on the ice he even congratulated his compatriot Alban Prober, who was in the lead at that time.
By the way, not so long ago, the favorite of the French public released an autobiography, where he spoke in great detail, self-criticism and irony about his failures and victories in sports. Joubert's frankness immediately won over his fans and added advantages to the athlete. True, the handsome Frenchman has long earned himself a positive image. And not only because he is not afraid to tell about his problems so that someone does not repeat such mistakes. Joubert, despite his appearance, is a rather impressionable young man. Not long ago he visited an orphanage and, as he later admitted, for several days he was impressed by the visit. He said that for the rest of his life he remembered the eyes of one boy, whom his parents left, and admitted that if he were married, he would take this child to his place without any hesitation.