Ilya Yablokov

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Olegovich and the family name is Yablokov.

Ilya Olegovich Yablokov (Russian: Илья Олегович Яблоков; born 29 September 2003) is a Russian figure skater. He is the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival champion and a three-time Junior Grand Prix medalist, including gold at 2021 JGP Slovenia. He finished in the top ten at the 2020 World Junior Championships.

Ilya Yablokov
Yablokov at the 2024 Russian Figure Skating Championships
Full name	Ilya Olegovich Yablokov
Native name	Илья Олегович Яблоков (Russian)
Other names	Ilia
Born	(2003-09-29) 29 September 2003 (age 21) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Russia
Coach	Viktoria Butsaeva
Skating club	Olympic School "Moskvich"
Began skating	2007

Personal life

Yablokov was born on 29 September 2003 in Saint Petersburg. As of 2020, he is a high school student.^[1]

Career

Yablokov began skating in 2007. He initially trained under Nadezhda Kondulinskaya and Alexander Shubin in Moscow, before later switching to Viktoria Butsaeva.^[2]

On the junior level internationally, Yablokov is the 2018 Christmas Cup, the 2019 Cup of Tyrol, and the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival champion. Earlier, he won silver at the 2017 Cup of Tyrol. At the Russian Junior Championships, Yablokov placed 14th in 2018 and 10th in 2019.

2019–2020 season

Yablokov received his first Junior Grand Prix assignments. At his first event, JGP Russia, he won bronze behind teammates Petr Gumennik and Artur Danielian as part of a Russian podium sweep. Yablokov was fourth at his second event in Italy, missing the podium by around eight points. As a result of his placements and by virtue of a tiebreaker, he was third alternate for the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Yablokov finished 11th at the 2020 Russian Championships in December after replacing Mikhail Kolyada, who was recovering from sinusitis. He sixth at the 2020 Russian Junior Championships in February and was subsequently named first alternate for the 2020 World Junior Championships team. Yablokov won senior bronze behind Makar Ignatov and Anton Shulepov at the Russian Cup Final at the end of February.

Yablokov was called up to replace Daniil Samsonov on the Junior Worlds team after Samsonov withdrew due to health issues.^[3] At the World Junior Championships, he was seventh after the short program but tenth in the free skating to finish tenth overall. Afterwards, Yablokov expressed that he was "extremely dissatisfied" with his performance at the event.^[4]

2020–2021 season

Yablokov spent part of the offseason at a national team training camp in Sirius. He fell ill with a sore throat three weeks before Russian test skates and contracted a rotavirus infection upon arriving in Novogorsk for the test skates. Yablokov's coach, Viktoria Butsaeva cited his illnesses as part of their struggles to prepare adequately for the season but noted his junior bronze medal at the Moscow Championships in September was a turning point.^[5]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Junior Grand Prix, where Yablokov would have competed, was cancelled. However, after the Grand Prix series was converted into semi-domestic events, he was able to replace Alexander Samarin at 2020 Rostelecom Cup as the latter was still recovering from a back injury.^[6] At Rostelecom Cup, Yablokov was tenth in the short program and ninth in the free skating to finish ninth overall.

At the 2021 Russian Championships in December, Yablokov struggled with mistakes in both programs, finishing in 13th place. He reflected after the short program that he was "not very happy with [himself]," noting that he could usually perform the elements "well and consistently."^[7] Yablokov then competed at the 2021 Russian Junior Championships in February, finishing second in the short program, but made mistakes in the free skating to place sixth in the segment.^[8] He appeared to have won the bronze medal but fell to fourth after judges realized that competitor Egor Rukhin's quadruple Salchow was miscalled as a triple; Rukhin's score with the adjusted base value placed him about 1.5 points above Yablokov.^[9]

2021–2022 season

With the resumption of international junior competition, Yablokov returned to the Junior Grand Prix at the 2021 JGP Slovakia, winning the silver medal.^[10] He went on to win a gold medal at the 2021 JGP Slovenia, qualifying for the 2021–22 Junior Grand Prix Final, but the latter event was cancelled as a result of concerns prompted by the Omicron variant. He was fifteenth at the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup at the senior level.^[11]

At the 2022 Russian Championships, Yablokov finished in fourteenth place.^[11]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating
2022-2024	The Ecstasy of Gold (from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) by Ennio Morricone performed by Il Volo	Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers performed by Tom Jones Shout by The Isley Brothers
2021–2022 [12]	Born to Play Reprise I Need You by Jon Batiste choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov	Walk Away by Xavier Mortimer & Maxime Rodriguez Funny (from City of Angels) by Nadim Naaman choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov
2020–2021 [1]	Moonlight Sonata (modern arrangement) by Ludwig van Beethoven	Walk Away by Xavier Mortimer & Maxime Rodriguez Funny (from City of Angels) by Nadim Naaman choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov Notre-Dame de Paris by Riccardo Cocciante choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov
2019–2020 [13]	Tick Tock Goes the Clock by Jo Blankenburg choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov	Notre-Dame de Paris by Riccardo Cocciante choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov
2018–2019	Sarabande Suite by Globus choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov	Shake a Tail Feather (from The Blues Brothers) by The Five Du-Tones performed by Ray Charles choreo. by Nikita Mikhailov

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

International[11]
Event	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23	23–24
GP Rostelecom Cup					9th
CS Warsaw Cup						15th
International: Junior[11]
Junior Worlds				10th
JGP Final						C
JGP Italy				4th
JGP Russia				3rd
JGP Slovakia						2nd
JGP Slovenia						1st
EYOF			1st
Christmas Cup			1st
Cup of Tyrol	2nd		1st
National[11]
Russian Champ.				11th	14th	14th	11th	9th
Russian Junior		14th	10th	6th	4th	1st
GPR Golden Skate								WD
GPR Krasnoyarye								4th
GPR Moscow Stars							4th
GPR Perm Territory							2nd
C = Event cancelled

Detailed results

ISU Personal best in bold.

Senior results

2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 21–26, 2021	2022 Russian Championships	13 85.40	13 158.31	14 243.71
November 17–20, 2021	2021 CS Warsaw Cup	9 76.41	20 121.91	15 198.32
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 23–27, 2020	2021 Russian Championships	13 77.38	14 136.77	14 214.15
November 20–22, 2020	2020 Rostelecom Cup	10 79.15	9 163.37	9 242.52
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 24–28, 2019	2020 Russian Championships	12 75.86	11 147.95	11 223.81

Junior results

2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
18–22 January 2022	2022 Russian Junior Championships	3 83.22	4 144.77	1 227.99
September 22–25, 2021	2021 JGP Slovenia	1 78.89	1 153.10	1 231.99
September 1–4, 2021	2021 JGP Slovakia	2 73.25	2 134.14	2 207.39
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 1–5, 2021	2021 Russian Junior Championships	2 85.38	6 148.86	4 234.24
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 2–8, 2020	2020 World Junior Championships	7 77.53	10 128.63	10 206.16
February 4–8, 2020	2020 Russian Junior Championships	4 81.62	6 144.48	6 226.10
October 2–5, 2019	2019 JGP Italy	5 70.39	4 143.01	4 213.40
September 11–14, 2019	2019 JGP Russia	3 73.73	3 133.95	3 207.68
2018–19 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 2–3, 2019	2019 Cup of Tyrol	1 78.04	1 138.60	1 216.64
February 13–14, 2019	2019 European Youth Olympic Festival	1 74.76	1 136.86	1 211.62
Jan. 31 – Feb. 4, 2019	2019 Russian Junior Championships	12 75.38	10 139.32	10 214.70
Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2018	2018 Christmas Cup	1 69.92	1 120.43	1 190.35
2017–18 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 23–26, 2018	2018 Russian Junior Championships	13 69.99	17 125.29	14 195.28
2016–17 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
Feb. 28 – Mar. 5, 2017	2017 Cup of Tyrol	1 63.17	2 116.60	2 179.77

References

1. "Ilya YABLOKOV: 2020/2021". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020.
2. "Яблоков Илья Олегович" [Yablokov Ilya Olegovich]. fskate.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 23 July 2019.
3. Velichko, Maria (28 February 2020). "Виктория Буцаева: "Яблоков находится в хорошей форме. На ЮЧМ будем рисковать"" [Victoria Butsaeva: “Yablokov is in good shape. We will take risks at the JWC"]. sports-ru.com (in Russian).
4. Bespalova, Ekaterina (6 March 2020). "Яблоков — о выступлении на ЮЧМ: "За произвольную программу поставлю себе "двойку"" [Yablokov – about his performance at the JWC: "For the free program I will give myself a "two""]. Sport Express (in Russian).
5. Kuznetsov, Dmitry (6 September 2020). ""С "Хрустальным" и "Ангелами Плющенко" можно бороться". Мнение тренера из конкурирующей школы" ["You can fight with "Khrustalny" and "Angels of Plushenko"." The opinion of a coach from a competing school]. Sport Express (in Russian).
6. Lotsik, Lina (17 November 2020). "Яблоков заменит Самарина на Гран-при России" [Yablokov will replace Samarin at the Russian Grand Prix]. sports-ru.com.
7. Lotsik, Lina (24 December 2020). "Илья Яблоков: "Сам собой не очень доволен. Четверной прыжок был недокрученный, выезд плохой"" [Ilya Yablokov: “I'm not very happy with myself. The quadruple jump was under-rotated, the exit was bad "]. sports-ru.com.
8. Palar, Sanjeev (4 February 2021). "Evgeni Semenenko clinches Russian junior men's figure skating championship title". Olympic Channel.
9. "Федерация фигурного катания РФ рассмотрит эпизод с судейской ошибкой на первенстве России" [The Figure Skating Federation of Russia will consider an episode with a referee error at the Russian Championship]. TASS (in Russian). 4 February 2021.
10. "Russia's next generation shines in Kosice at ISU Junior Grand Prix". International Skating Union. September 6, 2021.
11. "Competition Results: Ilya YABLOKOV". International Skating Union.
12. "Ilya YABLOKOV: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021.
13. "Ilya YABLOKOV: 2019/2020". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020.

External links

• Ilya YABLOKOV at the International Skating Union