2nd day of the starting stage of the “Battle of Schools-2024”.
On September 22, the first stage of the Moscow Sports Cup in figure skating, “Battle of Schools-2024,” ended. In the 2024/25 season, the unique project, which gives young skaters from 6 to 13 years old a chance to make a name for themselves to a wider audience or, in principle, launch a career in big-time sports, is experimenting with the regulations — from now on, those who compete in sports categories must skate both programs, as in any other tournament. One of the main advantages of the innovation is twice as many headliners, one for each competition day. On Sunday, following Adelia Petrosyan Another student performed at Loko Ice Eteri Tutberidze Sofya Akateva.
The 2023 Russian Champion missed the 2023/24 season due to recovery from a stress fracture and fully returned to the ice only on the eve of the off-season. During this six months, Akateva participated in the Team Tutberidze tour, prepared for the national team’s test skates and did not miss a single opportunity to please fans by appearing on the rink. In particular, a few weeks ago, the figure skater went to Omsk for the presentation of the Avangard hockey team. There, she presented a new exhibition number to the live vocals of the group “My Michelle”. “Bullfinches” is a composition about unhappy love, which Sofia interprets emotionally and gracefully. “I can’t dance in a white dress for long” (but in Sonya’s case, we hope she will dance for a long time) — the vocalist sings, and the Russian champion, to match the image, rushes around the rink in a sparkling white dress.
It was this exhibition number that Akateva decided to perform as a premiere for the Moscow audience at the first stage of the “Battle of Schools”. The athlete still does not risk ultra-si, but she confidently lands triple jumps. Thus, in the performance she landed a triple lutz, double axel and triple salchow, and during the warm-up, on top of everything else, a triple lutz – triple toe loop cascade. In a year off the ice, Tutberidze’s student has matured, and now such lyrical, adult programs do not seem “too much” for her, as before.
The headliner on the rink was replaced by those for whom the “Battle of Schools” was once created – young figure skaters. On the first day, they delighted with sincere emotions on and off the ice, as well as such original choreographic and musical solutions that even titled members of the adult team could envy. The students approached the tournament in the best shape Victoria Butsaeva from the Legend school. Sofia Gorodisskaya did not make it to the podium, but on both days she impressed with her charisma and the elegant dresses that complemented her programs. Vasilisa Zhdanova retained the lead after the short programs, despite the mistakes. Here, the bet on difficulty worked, because she was the only one among the 2nd sports category competitors to complete all the triple jumps. She won silver Darina Kulikova from the academy Tatyana Navka “Our Hopes”. In her free program, she took on Maurice Ravel’s cult piece “Bolero”. Due to the atypical modern adaptation, the individuality of the little athlete was visible in the production.
The winner in the 1st sports category was Marina Sarycheva from “Legend”. As in the case of Zhdanova, she did not cope with the declared content in full, but took it with superiority, having declared a set worthy even at the masters level: a triple lutz – triple toe loop cascade, a triple flip in combination and solo, and also… a triple axel. The skater did not manage to land a multi-turn jump, but still the attempt itself is valuable and unexpected for such a tournament. So there is no need to worry about the future of the figure skater – a worthy replacement for the current stars is growing up.
In men’s single skating, as on the first day, we were treated to some bright performances and ultra-si attempts. In the 2nd sports category, the order of the skaters on the podium changed somewhat. The leader remained Arseniy Barabinwho successfully landed a variety of triple jumps. But in terms of components, he was out-rolled Arseniy Ryabtsev. The day before, Butsaeva’s student was remembered for a cool program to the soundtracks from “Ratatouille”, and in the free program he took a contrasting theme – the tango “La Cumparsita”. Clear spins and hitting the right mood compensated for the content, which was still weak, but acceptable for this age category. As a result, he won one line in the protocols and became the silver medalist in the individual competition.
In the 1st sports category, the stakes were raised: all participants performed triple elements, and two attempted a triple axel. Mark Sokolov didn’t finish the ultra-si and fell behind in the race for gold, finishing in second place, while his classmate Dobromir Voronovon the contrary, managed one of the two planned triple axels and, despite other mistakes, reached the top of the podium. Bronze medalist Pavel Shin He didn’t risk multi-rotational jumps, but he put the Greek dance sirtaki on the ice and got the stands dancing.
Although it got very cold in Moscow on Sunday, the participants of the “Battle of Schools-2024” saved figure skating fans from the cold with their piercing energy and infectious love for the sport. The final was held in a festive atmosphere, reflecting the whole essence of a unique team competition: applause and awards congratulated the prize winners and winners not only in the individual but also in the team standings. In the team competition, the starting stage was won by the “Legenda” school. Its representatives scored the maximum number of points among all and, most likely, thus reserved a place in the final.
“Battle of Schools” is not about a fierce fight for ultra-si and titles. It is a celebration of sports and childish spontaneity, and having witnessed it, it is simply impossible not to love these still small, but incredibly hard-working and talented guys.
