Zhenya was shellshocked. She had done acceptable in the technical exercise but hadn’t been flawless, finishing second to Anna who surprisingly was the only one who got through her routine without any mistakes. Her free program had been disastrous. She just hadn’t been able to get into her program, into the swing of things. Her timing had been off through the entire routine and then she had even taken a fall in one of those jump passes that would have earned her a fair amount of points had she done it well enough.
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Zina and Liza had been behind her in the technical exercise and had done better than her in the free program. While Zina still remained in fourth place behind her overall, Liza moved up to second place after winning the free program over Anna who still took the title. When Zhenya and her sister had talked about the possible outcome of the National championships, Zhenya had always repeated that she was thinking that Liza, Zina and Zhenya herself would make the team. Anna hadn’t been on her list despite the fact that she acknowledged that her cousin had improved a lot over the past months.
When she saw Zina crying after the last competitor had performed and it was clear who’d go home with a medal it almost broke Zhenya’s heart. Zina had beaten her in the free program and she had still edged her out by one and a half points. It felt wrong to be ahead of her and yet Zhenya was not going to say that she’d withdraw from the world championships to give her little sister a chance to compete. She hugged Zina briefly, told her that she was sorry and made a beeline to get back into the arena where the officials prepared the victory ceremony.
She paused dead in her tracks when she saw Anna already standing there, realising that she’d have to congratulate her cousin. She forced a smile onto her face and approached the new Russian junior champion who was about to be properly crowned.
“Anya,†she said, as she gave her a hug, “congrats on the title and on making the team for worlds. You can be so proud of yourself. You’ve improved so much.†Her smile faded a little. A bronze medal and a ticket to worlds could not make her forget about her disappointment with her own performance and the place that resulted from it. How had Anna managed to get through two performances so well? It was a mystery. Anna had never been a medal contender before and it irked Zhenya that she had beaten her now.
@Anna Filimonova
