Anastasia Gubanova still missed her last chance to win an ISU Grand Prix medal this season. After a disastrous short on stage in Japan, the former Russian under the Georgian flag attempted to rehabilitate herself in the free skate, but she failed to impress the judges with her impeccable skating. Student Evgeniya Rukavitsyna achieved all of her jumps, but she did not avoid under-rotations and for some reason she missed the last rotation.
Nastya failed to break into the top three on the ice in Osaka. Gold and silver went to two Americans, Ava Marie Ziegler and Lindsey Thorngren, who scored 200.50 and 198.73 points for both programs, respectively. The young Belgian Nina Pinzarrón took bronze with 194.66 points.
Nastya was more than 10 points away from getting on the podium. However, she herself accepted defeat in advance. She entered the free show as a loser, not as the reigning European champion.
Gubanova was not in the mood for revenge
Anastasia Gubanova took to the ice before the free skate at the Osaka Arena with notable tension. In the initial position, she gave a slight smile, but there was sadness in the girl’s beautiful eyes. She evidently did not believe in the possibility of getting on the podium from 10th place and 55.80 points after the short. Although she actually she is in vain. A week earlier, American Amber Glenn performed a true miracle by winning bronze at the Finnish Grand Prix, despite finishing 11th and scoring 51.61 points on the first day of competition. But after the short, the gap between Amber and the top three was an order of magnitude larger than that of Nastya, so in any case you always have to fight to the end.
Anastasia Gubanova
Photo: Getty Images
Of course, to get the awards on the stage in Japan, a single Gubanova free show might not have been enough. Other participants, on the other hand, were also required to make mistakes in their performances: the more, the better. Relying on your rivals’ failures is, of course, a dubious strategy, but considering yourself a loser ahead of schedule is even worse. Anything can happen in competitions, medals are not awarded in advance.
Nastya’s cool free skate could easily unsettle the other girls. Unfortunately, she herself was never able to recover from her failure in the short term. The unusual first warm-up hurt the pride of the current European champion. It seems that it is simply not necessary to pay attention to this and focus on the next release. However, it is not at all easy to discard external tinsel.
How did Gubanova do in the short program?
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Gubanova ruined the waterfall and Egadze could not do without Tutberidze. Sensations of the Japanese Grand Prix
I was losing points on turns and was skidding slowly.
Nastya tried. She wanted to please the warm Japanese audience with a beautiful skating to the sensual composition “Caruso” by Lara Fabian. And in the first few minutes she really managed to pull herself together. Wearing a delicate white dress, she confidently performed a triple flip and triple sheepskin coat cascade, which so disappointed her yesterday and threw her into the basement of the tournament table. In fact, she had completed the most difficult item and wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. But, of course, it was too early to relax: Nastya has not been stable so far this season.
After the first waterfall, the girl easily performed the triple solo loop and the triple lutz, and then she got a little tired and did not turn the triple salchow. In the third level of spin and choreographic track, she had the opportunity to take a break from jumping, but this helped her: the combination of a triple lutz and a double axel came out clean. Almost immediately after, she jumped another waterfall: triple flip-double toe loop-double toe loop. Outwardly, she looked good, but the demanding judges found an insufficient quarter-turn turn in the third element and gave disadvantages for the quality of execution. Nastya probably summoned all her will into the final double axle, but the most important thing is that she landed without errors. This was the end of the painful jumping part of the free program for her. But even in this case it wasn’t about exhaling.
In the second rotation combined with a change of foot, Nastya got a little carried away, so instead of positive bonuses, several referees gave her handicaps. Fortunately, the skater took the step sequence to the fourth highest level of difficulty, but she didn’t have to rejoice about this for long. Complex steps also require a lot of energy, and she didn’t hold the final element of the free program: the bent over rotation. As a result, he was only assigned the first level of difficulty and again she lost precious points.
The ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix broadcast is available on Okko.
Best free skate result of the season, but no medal
Nastya’s performance was not perfect, but at least it did not have any major flaws. The audience showered her with applause and she bowed before them with a sincere smile. But this was definitely not the performance of the European champion. Slowly, intensively and, frankly, without that brightness that is present in Nastya’s character. She didn’t fight for the podium, she just tried to avoid serious mistakes. There was nothing to celebrate, although the skater clearly thought otherwise.
Before the scores were announced, she happily blew kisses to the camera and then prepared to watch the judge’s verdict. 128.52 points was her best result in the free skate this season and she accompanied them with understanding gestures. But in terms of total score, she didn’t get as many points as she could have gotten if it weren’t for the failure in the short: 184.32.
The hope that this would be enough for a medal did not last long. In the same warm-up, Gubanova was overtaken by Japan’s Yuna Aoki, and in the strongest group of participants there were four more single skaters. Thus, Nastya took sixth place at the Japanese Grand Prix. The same thing she did in the French Grand Prix, but with fewer points. No progress and especially no awards in the prestigious ISU championship series. But at the beginning of the season it looked like she might make it to the Grand Prix final. It’s sad, but none of that happened.
Who is to blame for Gubanova’s decline? They judge her objectively very strictly and do not forgive any mistakes. But in order not to find fault, it is necessary to work as hard as possible at competitions. Nastya does not do this and buries herself before the next European Championship.
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