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At the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow ended also the men's race, which was won by Tatsuki Machida on Maxim Kovtun and Javier Fernandez. Here is a small excerpt of their statements made at the press conference after the race.
Saturday 23 November 2013 7 minutes reading time
The skaters have commented on their performance:
Machida: I am really very happy to win to have grabbed the last spot available for the final. There is not much time before the race so I have to get back to work immediately.
Kovtun: I am very annoyed by my performance today. It 'a shame because there was a lot of prep work behind in this race. '' It's hard to explain the large amount of work behind the short is fine .. but the free ruined everything. My coaches are very disappointed, we are not even sure what went wrong. It was all going well, maybe I fell on the first jump and at that point I lost my concentration and I was never able to pull off the right energy. I had no energy to tackle the second quad. I guess they need more security to be able to even play, which I did in short. For the second time in a row I skated well short but free is still struggling to take off. We are glad for the final, I do not stop here of course, I have to continue to work, we will work on programs so that at the end I can skate at ease and fun. The most important thing is to be more regular in performance.
Fernandez: Today was tough for me. What can I say .. maybe the best will come to the next race. The goal was to center the final grand prix, but here I have not run two good programs. I still have to take something positive from this race, I have a few weeks of training available so I'll try to focus on things to improve.
Question for Fernandez: All your attempts to quadruple were very close to the railing. Maybe the track is too small?
Fernandez: No, there must be some other reason why for the first time so I approached the railing. I do not know what's wrong, I'll try to figure it out and fix everything. If it is what I think will be easy, but I'm not sure, we'll see about the next race. With the quad I had no problems in the past year and I thought I had time. Application for Machida: Yesterday you said not to be in good form but did not know the problem. Today you've done a good performance. At this time you've figured out what it was? Machida: He still does not feel fit and it was a difficult day for me, but clearly I wanted to qualify for the finals and take a good score so I tried with all my strength. I will try to understand why these my health.
Yesterday you also mentioned that you wanted to reach the hearts of the Russian public skating on the notes of Stravinsky. Machida: I'm actually only 40% or 50% of my condition, during the program, I was short of breath and have not been able to achieve a performance to the best of my ability. I landed the jumps but have exhausted my energy. I've skated twice in Russia in the past two experiences rather negative, but this time it was different, I really enjoyed racing here and can not wait to fight to earn my place in Sochi.
Application for Kovtun: Compared to last season have shown some improvement on the second score. How did you work, how long does it take to improve that aspect and who helps you?
Kovtun: As you well know from last May I started working with Peter Tchernyshev; him I slipped on the improvements and performance. To prepare to jump I do not put much, about 20 minutes and I did not even need heating. After working on the program, on the movements of the arms, the crash and spins for about 20 or 30 minutes each day. As I said already after the short program, where, however, skated a lot better than it is today, I can improve. We're working on, but I guess I have to work even harder at this point. I'm really disappointed with my program today, I let everyone down but this will motivate me to work harder. I'm glad to see that my coaches are strict with me, because it means they expect more from me and believe in me. For quanro regarding progress on the components of the program, now skate a bit 'in this category and I imagine that the judges consider me more seriously now.
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