Will Alena Leonova be able to recover from the hard blow she got at the Grand Prix Final? There are some doubts, we must admit, as the skater is just 19 years old. But she is a person of character, too!
Alena’s coach Alla Piatova is showing her how to do this or that element. There is little time left to work on mistakes, that’s why Piatova demands full concentration from her pupil even at practice. Russian Nationals are close at hand, and the European championship, which is to decide who will make the Olympic team, will be held in January.
This is the first time since 2005 that a single lady skater from Russia managed to become one of the six top competitors in the ISU Grand Prix series and accordingly to enter the Final. This week Alena Leonova will go to Tokyo to contend with the world’s best single skaters. Alena and her coach told infox.ru about the long way to Japan, an injury and the preparations for the event.
The ISU Grand Prix Final, one of the key events on the way to Vancouver 2010 Olympics, will take place in Tokyo, December 3-6. It is very likely that in the ladies field the only European will be Alena Leonova from Russia, who has medaled at two Grand Prix events, namely in Moscow (bronze) and Nagano (silver). Alena let the All Sport news agency into the secret of her success.
The bronze medalist of the Rostelecom Cup tells about alterations in
the course of her skating, the Grand Prix event in Japan and the 3T-3T
combination.
On October, 24, the competition program of the second ISU Grand Prix event was completed. The reigning World Junior champion Alena Leonova came in third at 160.06 points overall. She conveyed her impressions of getting her first senior Grand Prix medal to the All Sport news agency’s special correspondent.
Today, October 23, was the first day of the second ISU Grand Prix event, the Rostelecom Cup. Just as it was expected, the reigning World Junior champion Alena Leonova surpassed her Russian teammates after the ladies’ short program, coming in fourth at 56.78 points, not at all far away from the leaders. Leonova commented on her skating in an interview given to the All Sport news agency.
Rostelecom Cup, this season’s second ISU Grand Prix event, will take place from October 22 to 25 in Moscow, at the Megasport ice palace. In the ladies’ competition Russia will be represented by Katarina Gerboldt, Oksana Gozeva and Alena Leonova. Leonova, Russia’s best lady skater, who has recently won the prestigious international competition Finlandia Trophy, conveyed her impressions of her performance at the event to the All Sport news agency.
On September 19 and 20 an open test skate session for the Russian national team members was held at the Katok.ru skating rink in Gorki-2 (a suburban settlement) and in the town of Odintsovo near Moscow. Alena Leonova, last season's most successful Russian single skater, Junior World champion and the participant in senior Europeans (4th place) and Worlds (7th place) told the All Sport news agency about her performance and preparations for the next events.
Just a year ago Alena Leonova was known only to specialists and some keen figure skating fans. But after she had sensationally won the Junior World title (surpassing very strong contenders from the USA) and all but reached the podium at the 2009 European Championships, Alla Piatova’s pupil became the talk of the town. Alexei Dudin, Inflight Review, specially for Figurnoye Kataniye
Alena Leonova will enter the upcoming Olympic season being the leader of the Russian national team in ladies single skating. And there’s not much time left before the season starts. When Svetlana Antsyreva, the All Sport news agency reporter, phoned Alena, she found the young skater at Novogorsk, the national team’s training camp site. At first it seemed that the call had woken Alena up.
