Former Russians changed sports citizenship in 2023. The daughter of Honored Coach of Russia Eteri Tutberidze, Diana Davis, and her partner decided to play for Georgia. The transition caused great resonance in Russia. Additionally, it was reported that athletes paid all expenses related to their own development before leaving. However, there was still some sediment.
Unsuccessful beginnings
The European Championship without the Russians is already a tournament that can hardly be called top. However, even in conditions of weakened competition, the debuts of Davis and Smolkin for Georgia turned out to be frankly mediocre.
On Friday, dancing couples presented a rhythmic dance. The result of the Georgian representatives is not impressive – 76.33 points and 7th place.
At the same time, we can’t say that the guys played badly. The skaters presented their own performance to the singing of Michael Jackson. We managed to put some emotion into it, and the final support turned out to be very good. From a technical point of view, there are no questions for Tutberidze’s daughter and her partner. On the twizzles, they received the maximum level four, and the dance pattern – level three. The skaters only missed points on the parallel track.
The skaters themselves were pleased with themselves.
“We are very happy to return to the European Championships. It was quite difficult to watch the competition twice a week and prepare for who knows what. At the start of the season we realized that getting back into competitive form would be more difficult than “We made a few unexpected mistakes, but “Today everything went pretty well. Today we charged ourselves with energy. We feel that in general we are capable of doing well more than what we’re showing now,” Smolkin said after practice. .
It’s a shame, but it seems that even a near-perfect performance for a medal won’t be enough. It was clear that Davis and Smolkin were far from favorites. But even the skaters of the sixth group of participants, Czechs Natalie Tashlerova and Filip Tashler, beat them. Although the participants in the final warm-up did not achieve everything, they still beat Davis and Smolkin.
After the rhythm dance, the Italians Charlene Grignard and Marco Fabbri are in the lead with 86.80 points. Second place goes to the British Lila Fir and Lewis Gibson (85.20). And the top three were completed by Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius from Lithuania (80.73). It turns out that so far Davis and Smolkina are separated from bronze by just over four points. It is obvious that they will not be able to compete for more, and third place on the podium seems an almost impossible dream at the moment. However, there is a chance.
Davis and Smolkin’s prospects in Russia were not assessed very positively
It is curious that in Russia experts have a rather negative attitude towards figure skaters. After the transition of Davis and Smolkin, some experts directly stated that they did not expect anything special from Tutberidze’s daughter and her partner.
“It’s hard to say anything, but how long will it take them to adapt? Georgia is such an important state and does it need some kind of special adaptation? Everyone understands that their transition is a forced decision.
I don’t consider them a promising couple. It’s interesting to listen to your mother, to know her position – all her students are sitting at home and her daughter is playing, ”said three-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina.
“They are still no one, they don’t represent anything, just hype in the press. Nobody knew Gleb at all,” said USSR Honored Coach Tatiana Tarasova.
Anton Mozgovoy, Athletistic
Source: Sport
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