ISU Grand Prix Cup of Russia concluded yesterday at the Megasport arena. Alena finished 9th among 10 participants.

This event can surely be called Alena’s worst one in the last two seasons. Moreover, she made quite a lot of mistakes in both her programs. In the short one she fell on the Lutz and popped her Flip in the combination, which put her to the 9th place (46.61). Notably, during the warm-up she had done all the elements clean on the first try. Next day Alena failed to compose herself for the free skating, and once again at the six-minute warm-up all her jumps were executed perfectly. In the program, though, there were two falls (on the Lutz and the 2A+3T combination), two badly landed Flips and a double Salchow instead of a triple one in the 3T+1Lo+3S combination. Alena managed to gain the 4th technical score among all the competitors thanks only to the high levels that her spins (4th) and step sequences (3rd) were given. Still, she couldn’t move any higher in the overall ranking because of the low short program score. Her final score for the two programs was 144.06 and she finished 9th.     

As for the reasons for such bad performance, they are to be puzzled out by Alena and her coach Alla Piatova on their return to St. Petersburg. But it is obvious that one of the reasons was Alena’s back injury which she suffered at a practice several days before leaving for Novogorsk. Because of the injury Alena’s practices in Novogorsk and Moscow were of low intensity.

 

 

Alla Piatova’s interview given to the All Sport news agency after the short program:

"When Alena Leonova is eager to do everything superbly she starts to hasten”
 
"It’s difficult for me to explain what has happened to Leonova” Alla Piatova said. "I wonder where these technical mistakes came from. She fell on the triple Lutz, then couldn’t recollect herself and spoiled the combination by popping the Flip. These are the elements Alena has mastered. She did them both at her practices and during the warm-up. I think that when Alena is eager to do everything superbly she starts to hasten and approaches the elements more quickly than it is needed, which results in such mistakes. Of course, Leonova very much wanted to skate well at her home Grand Prix event. The more so, as she placed third in China and we have set a goal of making the Grand Prix final. So, Alena is highly motivated here in Moscow. But I think now it will be very difficult, if not to say impossible for her to make the Final. Of course she can move higher after the free skating, but only a little bit, because her short program score is too low. Well, it seems like Alena’s next event is going to be Russian Nationals, which will take place in Saransk, December 25-29. I can say that we won’t try to make the program more difficult, it is already difficult enough. We’ll just work hard on the elements”.

Alena’s comments given to FSkate.ru after the free skating:

"We’ll make an all-out troubleshooting”

"I think I couldn’t recollect myself after the first failed jump, and then mistakes followed one another. It is surely a most unpleasant thing. I was eager to skate clean, to do my best and fight for a medal. But I failed to do it. There are Nationals ahead, I will work hard on all the elements, on both my programs and my jumps, so that I can land them cool and clean. I need consistency. We’ll make an all-out troubleshooting. I have to improve my levels, too. I managed to cope with them quite decently in the short program, but not in the free one, frankly speaking”.

(Ksenia Makarova’s scores are announced, then she passes by refusing to give any comments).

Leonova: "Yesterday Ksenia took the rap for both of us, now it’s my turn (laughs). We get along very well. Yesterday we were encouraging and motivating each other after the failure in the short program. And now we are not going to lose heart”.

Short program и free skating judges scores

 

Short program

Free skating