The 2017 Russian Championships take place Dec. 20-25, 20i6, in Chelyabinsk. The team for the 2017 European Championships will be decided at the completion of this competition. The team that will head to the World Championships will be named shortly after Europeans.
Reigning World champion Evgenia Medvedeva headlines the field. She will have to fend off what is expected to be a strong challenge from her training mate Alina Zagitova, the reigning Junior Grand Prix Final champion. Also in the mix for medals are Anna Pogorilaya, the reigning World bronze medalist, Maria Sotskova and Elena Radionova, the 2016 European silver medalist. Russia has three places available at the European Championships in the ladies discipline. Zagitova is age-ineligible for senior international competitions this season and will instead head to the World Junior Championships.
The men’s event will be Mikhail Kolyada’s to lose. He essentially has no rivals in this field but look for Alexander Samarin, Maxim Kovtun, Andrei Lazukin and Dmitri Aliev to be challenging each other for the remaining two steps of the podium. Kolyada will be aiming for a podium finish at the European Championships after landing in fifth place last season.
In pairs, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov are odds-on favorites take the gold but it will be no walk in the park to capture the gold medal with Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov hot on their heels. Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert will round out the pairs podium in Chelyabinsk.
Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Solovyev will dance to gold with no challenge. Silver and bronze could go to any one of three teams: Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, or Elena Ilinykh and Russian Zhiganshin.
START ORDERS/RESULTS
EVENT SCHEDULE – ENGLISH
EVENT SCHEDULE – RUSSIAN
