Alisa Zaikina plans harder programme after junior victory in Almaty

Alisa Zaikina gave a restrained assessment of her victory in the junior event at the Denis Ten Memorial. The skater said she used a simplified programme and expects to restore more difficult jumps.

Speaking to TASS on October 9, she said she had not prepared the planned difficulty in time. A Salchow was removed from the programme. Zaikina expects to bring it back and intends to keep working on the Lutz.

Her programme contained four ultra-C elements at test skates, compared with three in competition in Almaty. She believes she can perform more difficult elements and skate more confidently. She nevertheless described her feelings after the performance as positive, if restrained.

Her combined short-programme and free-skate score was 206.05 points. Viktoriia Streltsova finished second with 200.99, followed by Alena Prineva with 198.59. The memorial runs in Kazakhstan from October 8 to 10.