http://www.thestar.com/sports/
Published On Fri Oct 28 2011
Elizaveta Tuktamisheva of Russia performs her short program in the women's competition during the Skate Canada International figure skating competition Friday in Mississauga.
PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
By Rosie DiMannoColumnist
Here comes another Russian supernova, baby star.
Elizaveta Tuktamisheva is 14 — too young for eligibility at the European or world championships this year but old enough for Skate Canada, her first-ever assignment as a senior on the Grand Prix circuit.
At 12, the pre-adolescent was already being hailed as a prodigy, at least in the Russian media. For once, this wasn’t exaggeration.
The kid is sitting atop the standings following the women’s short program competition, with a look-at-me performance out of the season chute: a whopping 11.50 score on her opening triple Lutz-triple toe combination and smooth as silk in most of the mandatory elements if still a tad raw on the non-jumping components, the layback and circular step sequence.
Teensy in proportion, even by figure skating standards, and with a heart-shaped face, the miniature Tuktamisheva made a huge splash at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, racking up a score of 59.57 skating to a tango, clad in lacy black that was probably way too grown-up for her age.
She appeared not remotely nervous by entering senior ranks — after just one year in juniors — though claiming to feel anxious.
“Not relaxed,” Tuktamisheva insisted afterwards, comment limited by only minimal ability to speak English, a language she’s studying as a Grade 10 student. “After six elements, relaxed. Not very comfortable.”
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