“We were thinking about withdrawing from the Omsk stage, but we really wanted to come here” – figure skaters Khabibullina and Knyazhuk

Skaters Natalia Khabibullina And Ilya Kniajouk racing as a couple, said they could withdraw from the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix in Omsk due to the illness of their partner.

On Saturday, Khabibullina/Knyazhuk finished third in the short program of the second stage of the Russian Grand Prix, earning 72.69 points. First place went to Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Gallyamov (73.50), second place to Yulia Artemyeva/Alexey Bryukhanov (72.85).

— Ilya Knyazhuk (IR): Today we are 99 percent satisfied.

— Natalia Khabibullina (NH): Let’s watch the show, maybe we’ll see something for ourselves. The preparations turned out to be unclear, I fell ill and I was not in very good shape.

-IR: We were wondering if we were going to reach this point or not. We were thinking of filming, but we really wanted to come here. We have never been to Omsk, there is a great arena here, a lot of people, the public supported us a lot. We had to skate cleanly. I didn’t have a feeling it would be first place.

— NH: Did the judges see that I was under-shot? It was as if he really was.

-IR: We didn’t watch the Mishina/Gallyamov show. We saw in the scores that something was wrong for them.

— NH: How has the illness affected your preparation? We trained in a relaxed manner. One workout per day. But you still have to train, it will be easier to skate,” the correspondent reports the skaters’ words.

The second stage of the Russian Figure Skating Grand Prix will take place in Omsk on October 21-22.