The biggest international contest of the World Slalom Series 2013 in Russia was held close to Moscow on October 25-27, thanks to Rollerclub and the Russian Federation of Roller Sports.

There were a lot of changes for this year's Rollerclub Cup :
First, instead of the usual March event, it took place in October, and not at the usual skating place, but a two-hour drive from Moscow : Holiday Houses Pokrovskoe where skaters were invited with accommodation, food and indoor place for training and competing.
Rollerclub Cup, as usual, included all the disciplines of freestyle: speed slalom, battle and also classic and slides. The event was transformed into a multi-discipline tournament rewarding the best overall skater. The one who had the best results in most disciplines would win the Rollerclub Cup at the end.
The competition was scheduled on three days: October 25-26-27, 2013.

On Friday, it was Speed Slalom and Classic Junior, on Saturday, Senior Classic and Slides, and on Sunday, Battle Men & Women.

The first day of competition was dedicated to the juniors' classic freestyle. The new generation of future champions is growing each year, and there is very good dynamic in Russia with the yougests.

Russians Sofia Bogdanova and Gleb Velikanov won the junior's classic freestyle contest and Vyacheslav Skurihin from Russia and Laya Arabi from Iran were the winners of the junior's speed-slalom contest.

Women's Junior Classic Freestyle results :
1. Sofia Bogdanova (Rus, Moscow)
2. Maria Nikolaeva (Rus, Moscow)
3. Dubinchik Natalia (Rus, Moscow)

Men's Junior Classic Freestyle results :
1. Velikanov Gleb (Rus, Moscow)
2. Mikhail Lazarev (Rus, Moscow)
3. Skurihin Vyacheslav (Rus, Moscow)

Women's Junior Speed Slalom results :
1. Arabi Laya (IRI, Tehran)
2. Sofia Bogdanova (Rus, Moscow)
3. Dubinchik Natalia (Rus, Moscow)

Men's Junior Speed Slalom results :
1. Skurihin Vyacheslav (Rus, Moscow)
2. Burmistrov Egor (Rus, Yaroslavl)
3. Zotkin Lev (Rus, Penza)

On the same day, were held the seniors' speed slalom competitions.
Simone Nai Oleari (Ita) confirmed his status of fastest skater in the speed-slalom, but he had to fight hard for the first place against a new challenger, the Iranian Motevasell Farbod, who did the best run in the time trials (4,26 sec) and after a 1 to 1, lost the final's third run for only 1 tenth of a second.

In the women's contest, Klaudia Hartmanis (Pol) got the first place for the first time in his career in a 3 cones competition, beating another polish skater, E.Czapla in the final.

K.Hartmanis : "Yes it's the first time i win speed in a 3 cones event, I was very close to win in Korea (Namwon Korea Open) but finally I took 2nd place which was also very good. I still don't spend too much time for training in speed slalom, but on this competition i was really focused and maybe a little bit more lucky than usual ! (smile) It was really a great feeling after the final. I did my best, fast and clear runs."

Women's Speed Slalom results :
1. Hartmanis Klaudia (Poland)
2. Czapla Ewelina (Poland)
3. Prucnal Angelika (Poland)

Men's Speed Slalom results :
1. Nai Oleari Simone (Italy)
2. Motevasell Farbod (Iran)

3. Tsokolov Alexey (Russia)

The second day was devoted to senior classics and slides.
In the women's classic freestyle competition, Daria Kuznetsova once again got the first place, the two other places on the podium went to Olga Semenikhina (Rus) and Klaudia Hartmanis (Pol).
In the men classic, the victory went to the young but very talented russian skater Sergey Timchenko, who left behind him Sulinowski Michal from Poland and his old brother, Alexandr Timchenko.

Women's Classic Freestyle results :
1. Daria Kuznetsova (Russia)
2. Semenikhina Olga (Russia)
3. Hartmanis Klaudia (Poland)

Men's Classic Freestyle results :
1. Sergey Timchenko (Russia)
2. Sulinowski Michał (Poland)
3. Alexander Timchenko (Russia)

Sergey Timchenko : "The victory in the Rollerclub Cup in classic freestyle is my biggest win up to date. After the competition in Shanghai, we changed a lot my run, we made it more difficult by two technical transitions. They were not too stable, so we did not expect such a big result, cause all the competitors were very strong but still i wanted to be on the top five. The main objective was to make my run clear and without mistakes.
It was still not perfect but that was good enough to win ! When I realized that I won, i had so many emotion, happiness, joy, tears ! I want to thank my coach Angelika Babiy! Thanks for a great program, for the interesting trainings, for your patience and faith in me.
I also want to thank Denis Islamov, who helped me a lot and coached me, which was very useful for me. I want to say big thanks to my parents for giving to me the opportunity to skate on various competitions and for supporting me ! Thanks also to my elder brother Alexander! And thanks to all my friends who are always supporting me, who celebrate my successes and help to overcome failures "

In the women's slide contest, russian rider Liudmila Li made one more unexpected victory leaving behind her eternal favorites Fokina Olga (Rus) and Krykova Natalia (Rus).

Li Liudmila (Rus) : "That was so much joy and satisfaction for me to win the contest! I think it was expected result, because i did a good job in the final, and of course hours of training have not been in vain. I will take a break for study now till the next big event."

In the men's slide contest there were a main fight between two brothers from Ukraine - Martsenyuk Alexey and Martsenyuk Victor. As a final result Alexey got the first place, second one was for his brother Victor and third place went to russian rider Vladimir Demidov.

Results of the Women's Slide Contest :
1. Li Liudmila (Russian)
2. Fokina Olga (Russia)
3. Krykova Natalia (Russia)

Results of the Men's Slide Contest :
1. Martsenyuk Alexey (Ukraine)
2. Martsenyuk Victor (Ukraine)
3. Demidov Vladimir (Russia)

The third day was dedicated to the Battle.
Daria Kuznetsova (Rus) has confirmed her status as the strongest in the world, as she won the final leaving behind her Boyko Marina from Ukraine and Semenikhina Olga from Russia. The 4th place went to Klaudia Hartmanis from Poland.

Hartmanis Klaudia (Pol) : "The level is higher and higher in every competition. Freestyle is developping very fast, that's why I think it's more difficult this year than before.
And for sure next year will be even harder. So I'm going to keep practicing. This event was for me well-organized, everything went in accordance with the plan and even I had only few hours free, thanks to the Russian skaters, I could see city centre (smile)"

The men's battle has been won by world number #1 Romain Lebois (Fra), the second place was for the young winner of classic's competition - Sergey Timchenko from Russia, and Sulinowski Michal from Poland got the third place ; Alexey Tsokolov was the fourth skater in the final.

Lebois Romain (France) : "It was harder than last year because i was very nervous about the world championships which is coming very fast. The competitors were very good in this event ! Alexandre Claris, Michal, Artyom, Timchencko brothers, Carlos, Aleksey, it was very good to fight against them and to enjoy the battle with them.
About my results here i'm not totally happy because i fail all my competitions, my speed, my classic, and same my battle final because of stress, i need to be much more concentrated to pass all my combos ! Anyway it was a very good competition and i will come back next year for sure !

Results of the Women's Freestyle Battle :
1. Daria Kuznetsova (Russia)
2. Marina Boyko (Ukraine)
3. Semenikhina Olga (Russia)
4. Hartmanis Klaudia (Poland)

Results of the Men's Freestyle Battle :
1. Lebois Romain (France)
2. Timchenko Sergey (Russia)
3. Sulinowski Michal (Poland)
4. Tsokolov Alexey (Russia)

As the result of the Rollerclub Cup (overall result), the Cup went to Alexander Timchenko and Klaudia Hartmanis.

Alexander Timchenko (Russia) : "This award was a little unexpected for me, but extremely enjoyable. The most difficult thing was to get a sufficient number of points for speed-slalom, as I almost didn't train for it. But, surprisingly, the result was good this time, and so i had the opportunity to compete for the cup. Classic and Battle were my main directions, i was ready for them. But i still have to work a lot, so i will train hard this winter to prepare the next season :) It's great that there were so many skaters from different countries for the Moscow competition this year. It's a pleasure to compete with strong riders with such a high level."

All the results are available here.

All the videos are available here.

Article by Polina Semenova
Pictures by Zelenova Nadezda
Video by Slalom Tim Team