Russian Test Skates - Junior (in August) & Senior (Sept. 12-13)

[Elizabeth]

The junior portion of the test skates will being tomorrow (Aug. 10th) in Novogorsk with the rhythm dances. They will run through Aug. 19th and you may be able to watch a live stream via Russian TV.

The senior portion will be held Sept. 12-13.

Read all about the plans, schedule, etc. here: https://www.ifsmagazine.com/2020-russian-test-skates/

[Elizabeth]

Junior Rhythm Dance test skates (with Russian commentary) on YouTube: https://t.co/XD8sQxnaRl?amp=1

The Junior Free Dance test skates on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc3qSo10OPU&app=desktop

[Elizabeth]

Junior Pairs SP: https://t.co/qJvbpcIqlX?amp=1

[Elizabeth]

Junior Pairs Free Skate: https://t.co/MzfZakiCD9?amp=1

[Elizabeth]

Junior Men & Ladies SP: https://t.co/1sfH7O1Dn6?amp=1

Junior Men & Ladies FS: https://youtu.be/YksvpQFt58c

[Elizabeth]

The senior test skates will be taking place in Moscow later this week:

• Sept. 12 - SPs at 15:00 Moscow Time - https://t.co/USfmoUnA0u?amp=1
• Sept. 13 - FPs at 15:00 Moscow Time - https://t.co/lwZjYgRK4d?amp=1

A number of skaters/couples will not participate due to injuries: Aliev, Danielian, Sinitsina/Katsalapov, Stepanova/Bukin

Alina Zagitova has also decided not to participate; she is involved in a TV project, I believe.

The exterior view of the location of the test skates:

[Elizabeth]

The schedule with time conversions, thanks to Jackie Wong (NOTE - times updated on 11 September)

2020 RUS Senior test skates
ET / Moscow / JPN
12 Sept
September 12, 2020
ET / Moscow / JPN
8:00 / 15:00 / 21:00 - RD
8:30 / 15:30 / 21:30 - Men SP
9:20 / 16:20 / 22:20 - Pairs SP
10:10 / 17:10 / 23:10 - Ladies SP
13 Sept
8:00 / 15:00 / 21:00 - FD
8:35 / 15:35 / 21:35 - Men FS
9:30 / 16:30 / 22:30 - Pairs FS
10:30 / 17:30 / 23:30 - Ladies FS

I understand there will be some commentary from Ted Barton on the YouTube stream.

[Elizabeth]

A related article about Mikhael Kolyada who is returning to competition after a change of coaches and a period of ill health: https://www.goldenskate.com/2020/09/fre ... ng-change/

Meanwhile, 2-time Russian champion Sergei Voronov announced his retirement on his Instagram today.

[Elizabeth]

Start order for the Senior Rhythm Dance:
1. Anastasia Skoptsova/Kirill Aleshin
2. Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva/Egor Bazin
3. Sofia Shevchenko/Igor Emerenko
4. Annabelle Morozov/Andrei Bagin
5. Tiffany Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro

The start order for the Senior Mens SP:
1. Alexander Samarin
2. Petr Gumennik
3. Roman Savosin
4. Makar Ignatov
5. Andrei Mozalev
6. Mikhail Kolyada

The start order for the Senior Pairs SP:
1. AleksandrabBoikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii
2. Anastasia Mishina/Alexandr Galliamov
3. Alina Pepleva/Roman Pleshkov
4. Daria Pavlyuchenko/Denis Khodykin
5. Yasmina Kadyrova/Ivan Balchenko

The order of skate for the Senior Ladies SP:

[Elizabeth]

I watched the Senior short programs live this morning and thoroughly enjoyed both seeing them and hearing Ted Barton's commentary - most of the skaters were in full costume (and make-up) while others were in practice outfits. Some of them looked almost "ready for prime time", probably because they had set up isolated training camps for a while somewhere in "the wilds" of Russia. A few were not as well advanced. There was no marking involved but lots of note-taking by all their technical experts along the boards.

It was a bit shocking to see the disregard for masks, used properly, if at all, and distancing - in the limited audience and among the coaches and skaters along the boards.

Ted was in his element with some of the skaters who are just coming up from Junior and whom he has been following for a few years. He put in a couple of plugs for the re-streaming of the 2017 Junior Worlds and was effusive in his thanks to Russia 1 for streaming the tests.

Evgenia had no coach at the boards but there was a man who was following her with her phone camera and Brian was obviously watching from Toronto (see photo below). You can actually see Brian in the 2nd photo and you could see Brian on her phone talking to her afterward when she came off the ice (third photo). Her program to "Masquerade" was choreographed by Jeff Buttle.

[Elizabeth]

One coach was in Toronto but was even interviewed by Russia 1



And then there were the coaches for the other ladies who were actually in the arena

[Elizabeth]

An article for IFS Magazine about the Russian Test Skates:
https://www.ifsmagazine.com/kolyada-tru ... st-skates/