Alexandra Ignatova wins Denis Ten Memorial in Almaty

Alexandra Ignatova, previously known as Trusova, won the Denis Ten Memorial in Almaty on October 9. The Beijing Olympic silver medallist scored 226.01 points across the short and free programmes.

South Korea's Yujae Kim finished second with 209.20 points. Kazakhstan's Sofia Samodelkina took third with 204.36. Russian skaters Mariia Zakharova and Dina Khusnutdinova placed fifth and seventh with 187.77 and 185.70 respectively, RBC reported.

This was Ignatova's second international competition since the 2022/23 season. In early September, she placed second at the Kinoshita Group Cup in Tokyo, her first international appearance in four years.

The skater gave birth to a son in August 2025. She returned to competition in 2026 and was included in Russia's reserve national squad. Before this event, her most recent international victory had come at Skate America in October 2021.

The Denis Ten Memorial belongs to the ISU Challenger Series, which has run since 2014 and sits between ordinary international events and the Grand Prix. Russian skaters have been admitted to ISU competition as neutral athletes, although their quotas for major events remain limited because of missing ranking points.