More Withdrawal News from Japanese and Russian Nationals

Hanyu withdraws from Japanese Nationals with the flu; draw and starting orders clarifies entire roster for Russian Nationals.

On the final eve before Japan and Russia both start their National Championships, the withdrawals are still coming. Wednesday saw the biggest loss from either competition out of Japan. Meanwhile, the Russian skaters drew their starting orders, the post of which clarified once and for all who’s in and who’s out.

It turns out there are two high-profile junior withdrawals in Chelyabinsk.

Hanyu Out with Flu

So far, we have only heard of one late withdrawal from Japanese Nationals in Osaka. But it’s the biggest loss they could’ve suffered. Thursday Olympic men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu pulled out. Apparently, he caught the flu a week ago, and won’t recover enough to skate for another. This will be a huge disappointment for Japanese fans, many of whom probably bought tickets to the event just to see him.

If he was literally any other male Japanese skater, this would spell disaster for him. Japan has some of the strictest rules in the world about needing to skate at Nationals to qualify for anything that happens after it.

But they do have an exception for skaters who have been on the World podium.

They at least can be considered for Worlds and other events if something made it truly impossible for them to compete at Nationals. Hours after the withdrawal, Japanese skating officials assured everyone Hanyu’s huge success on the Grand Prix this year will be sufficient for qualification purposes.

With him out, rising star Shoma Uno is the heavy favorite to win his first National title. But when Hanyu is no longer in a field of Japanese men, one almost feels like anything could happen.

Multiple Withdrawals From Russian Nationals

As for Russian Nationals, with starting orders and results now up, we’ve now confirmed Elizaveta Nugumanova is out. But it also turns out she’s not the only one.

Altogether, the rosters have lost six of their original entries, five of them replaced by alternates. Among those gone is another Junior Grand Prix Finale competitor: Roman Savosin. We’d heard nothing about him having any trouble. We still know little about why any of them withdrew besides Lipnitskaya.

Savosin actually is old enough to potentially qualify for senior-level championships. It wasn’t even entirely impossible he could have done it. The Russian men’s field is currently filled with more men struggling than not, and crazier things have happened in it historically. Although he would’ve needed the Russian Federation’s favor, too, and really, it was always a long shot. Meanwhile, his chances of making the World Junior Championships are good, but he has to skate at Junior Nationals to earn it. He may have well pulled out of Nationals as a precautionary measure even if his injury was mild. Unless he too had the flu.

Meanwhile, his chances of making the World Junior Championships are good, but he has to skate at Junior Nationals to earn it. He may have well pulled out of Nationals as a precautionary measure even if his injury was mild. Unless he had the flu, too.

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Japanese and Russian Nationals both start on Thursday.