The winners with their coaches (Credits: Team Paradise - 2020)

All the synchro-lovers in Russia became the happiest skaters, coaches, judges, and supporters from October 31 to November 1, 2020. Indeed, overcome all the obstacles, the 1st Stage of the Russian Cup took place in Togliatti. Traditionally, this competition was held in Moscow. However, the bad epidemiological situation in the city couldn't allow competitions to take place. Fortunately, Tolyatti still managed to host events, and they were between three age-categories: Advanced Novices, Juniors, and Seniors.

For this first national competition, all teams showed a good level of preparation, and neither the lockdown nor the lack of practices couldn’t prevent them from it. Unexpectedly, many Russian teams managed to present new programs.

Remind that this year the ISU allowed teams to keep programs from the previous season. However, most teams took the challenge and performed or will perform soon with at least one new program. 

This year, two senior teams participated in the 1st stage of the Russian Cup. The Team Paradise from Saint-Petersburg confidently grabbed the leadership. They had kept their “Tango” short program from last season. They performed it almost perfectly and got 81.64 points after the short program. The second team was Orlenok from Perm. It is only their second season in the Senior category, and they’re just starting to find their own skating style. The team performed well and got 41.89 points.

After the free program, the situation didn’t change, and Team Paradise won the competition with a huge margin (121.96 points). For this season, the coaches of the team – Irina and Alexandr Yakovlevs and Elena Chernova – chose the famous “Swan Lake” by P. Tchaikovsky for the free program. The girls presented it professionally. High speed, aesthetic body positions, and wonderful choreography encouraged the judges to give them excellent scores. For the free program, the team received 149.70 points, beating the opponents Orlenok from Perm by 82.21 points.

The team Sunrise-1 from Saint-Petersburg won the junior competition. Their new short program is about the musical compositions from the French film “Micramacs”. However, the idea of the program is entirely different from the plot of the movie. The skaters are in the dolls' image from an antique box, inviting the audience into their magic world. The girls skated well and executed all the elements accurately. They got 68.75 points and took 1st place after the short program.

The 2nd place (with 60.08 points) was for the team Zhemchuzhina from Togliatti. They also presented the new short program to the music “The one” by P. Jennison. They chose a tender image that perfectly emphasized the flying blue dresses.

The team Symphonia from Krasnodar finished in 3rd place, getting 38.09 points. 

The next day of the Junior competition was no less bright.

All the teams nicely performed their free programs and avoided serious mistakes. The rankings remained the same: the 1st place was for the team Sunrise-1 (195.11 points), the 2nd – for Zhemchuzhina (172.35 points), and the 3rd one was for the team Symphonia (112.42 points).

The 1st place in the Advanced Novices division also went to a team from Saint Petersburg.

Sunrise-2 skated to the song “Under pressure” by P!nk & Happy Feet Two Chorus. They performed energetic skating, and even offensive mistakes didn’t spoil the impression. The team got 90.65 points.

One more Petersburg team Sunrise-3 that was created only in the last season took 2nd place, with 85.52 points.

The team Ldinka from Kazan earned 70.02 points and finished 3rd.

The synchro community has proved many times that together we can overcome all difficulties. The pandemic, a self-isolation regime, and the cancellation of the Worlds 2020… All these things, although hit the morale of teams around the world, did not break them.

On the contrary, thanks to that situation, the world of synchronized skating, which was previously characterized by unity, has rallied even more. During the 1st stage of the Russian Cup, this became especially noticeable. Unfortunately, the audience was banned from entering the ice rink, and fans could only support their favorites at the online broadcast screens. 

Nevertheless, skaters were not left without support! Teams from younger or vice versa older categories, coaches, and even opponents - all went up to the stands to support the performing athletes. 

So, the season 2020-2021 has finally started in Russia! The next months will be quite unusual and very unpredictable, but the main thing is that it will be!

Watch this video! "Swan Lake" the new program of Team Paradise, 3x World Champions, starts at about 51 min.