Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik cleanly executed his short program during a practice run-through ahead of the Challenger series tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The skater completed a quadruple flip-triple toe loop combination, a quadruple lutz and a triple axel, landing every element without error, according to a report from the venue by news agency RIA Novosti.
Two other Russian figure skaters also took part in the same training session in Almaty. Gleb Lutfullin completed a triple flip, a triple axel and a quadruple salchow-triple toe loop combination during his short program run-through. Vladislav Dikidzhi skated his free program, landing a quadruple lutz, a double flip, a quadruple salchow and a jump combination featuring a triple axel, an euler, a triple salchow and another triple axel.
Challenger series competition in Kazakhstan
The men's short program is scheduled to take place on Thursday. Russia will be represented in the event by Gumennik alongside national champion Dikidzhi and Russian championship silver medallist Lutfullin.
Gumennik previously competed in early September at the Kinoshita Group Cup in Japan, where he finished in sixth place.
The Challenger series is an international circuit of figure skating events organized under the auspices of the International Skating Union. It serves as a secondary senior-level competitive tier below the ISU Grand Prix series, allowing skaters to earn world ranking points and test their competitive programs early in the season.
Almaty, the former capital and largest city of Kazakhstan, lies in the mountainous southeast of the country and regularly hosts international sporting competitions in Central Asia.
Technical demand of quadruple jumps
In competitive figure skating, the short program is the opening segment of a competition and requires men to perform specific required elements, including jump combinations and solo jumps, within a strict time limit of two minutes and 40 seconds. Skaters present their free program on a subsequent day.
Quadruple jumps require skaters to rotate four complete times in the air before landing cleanly on a single blade. Among these, the lutz and flip are toe-assisted jumps considered to be among the most technically demanding in figure skating, carrying higher base values than edge jumps like the salchow.
Combinations that include an euler use the single-revolution half-loop jump as a connecting transition, enabling skaters to chain multiple multi-revolution jumps together within a single element.
