2019 European Championship silver medalist Alexander Samarin has withdrawn from the Russian stage of this weekend’s ISU Grand Prix series.
Last season’s winner of the Rostelecom Cup, Samarin missed the first stage of the Cup of Russia series in Syzran due to a back injury. According to his coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya, the 22-year-old figure skater will not take part in this weekend’s competition because he has not yet fully recovered from the injury and they do not want to force risk reinjury. Samarin did participate in the second stage of the Cup series in Moscow – skating simplified versions of his programs, and placed second overall.
Samarin will be replaced by Ilya Yablokov. The 17-year-old finished in fourth place at both the third and fourth stages of this season’s Cup series events, and will be making his international senior level debut at the Rostelecom Cup. Last season, he placed third at the ISU Junior Grand Prix series event in Russia and fourth at the event in Italy.
For full schedule and list of participants at the 2020 Rostelecom Cup, click here.
The Skating Times 
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