Ilya Yablokov Explained

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.

Personal life

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

Career

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

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. 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.

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.

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. 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." 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. 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.

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. 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.

At the 2022 Russian Championships, Yablokov finished in fourteenth place.

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating
2022-2024	The Ecstasy of Gold	Stayin' Alive Ain't No Sunshine Shout
2021–2022	Born to Play Reprise I Need You	Walk Away Funny
2020–2021	Moonlight Sonata	Walk Away Funny ---- Notre-Dame de Paris
2019–2020	Tick Tock Goes the Clock	Notre-Dame de Paris
2018–2019	Sarabande Suite	Shake a Tail Feather

Competitive highlights

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

International
Event	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23	23–24
align=left						9th
align=left							15th
International: Junior
align=left					10th
align=left							C
align=left					4th
align=left					3rd
align=left							bgcolor=silver	2nd
align=left							bgcolor=gold	1st
align=left				bgcolor=gold	1st
align=left				bgcolor=gold	1st
align=left		bgcolor=silver	2nd		bgcolor=gold	1st
National
align=left					11th	14th	14th	11th	9th
align=left			14th	10th	6th	4th	bgcolor=gold	1st
Golden Skate								WD
Krasnoyarye								4th
Moscow Stars							4th
Perm Territory							bgcolor=silver	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	align=center	13 85.40	align=center	13 158.31	align=center	14 243.71
November 17–20, 2021	2021 CS Warsaw Cup	align=center	9 76.41	align=center	20 121.91	align=center	15 198.32
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 23–27, 2020	2021 Russian Championships	align=center	13 77.38	align=center	14 136.77	align=center	14 214.15
November 20–22, 2020	2020 Rostelecom Cup	align=center	10 79.15	align=center	9 163.37	align=center	9 242.52
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 24–28, 2019	2020 Russian Championships	align=center	12 75.86	align=center	11 147.95	align=center	11 223.81

Junior results

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2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
18–22 January 2022	2022 Russian Junior Championships	align=center	3 83.22	align=center	4 144.77	align=center bgcolor=gold	1 227.99
September 22–25, 2021	2021 JGP Slovenia	align=center	1 78.89	align=center	1 153.10	align=center bgcolor=gold	1 231.99
September 1–4, 2021	2021 JGP Slovakia	align=center	2 73.25	align=center	2 134.14	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 207.39
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 1–5, 2021	2021 Russian Junior Championships	align=center	2 85.38	align=center	6 148.86	align=center	4 234.24
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 2–8, 2020	2020 World Junior Championships	align=center	7 77.53	align=center	10 128.63	align=center	10 206.16
February 4–8, 2020	2020 Russian Junior Championships	align=center	4 81.62	align=center	6 144.48	align=center	6 226.10
October 2–5, 2019	2019 JGP Italy	align=center	5 70.39	align=center	4 143.01	align=center	4 213.40
September 11–14, 2019	2019 JGP Russia	align=center	3 73.73	align=center	3 133.95	align=center bgcolor=cc9966	3 207.68
2018–19 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 2–3, 2019	2019 Cup of Tyrol	align=center	1 78.04	align=center	1 138.60	align=center bgcolor=gold	1 216.64
February 13–14, 2019	2019 European Youth Olympic Festival	align=center	1 74.76	align=center	1 136.86	align=center bgcolor=gold	1 211.62
Jan. 31 – Feb. 4, 2019	2019 Russian Junior Championships	align=center	12 75.38	align=center	10 139.32	align=center	10 214.70
Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2018	2018 Christmas Cup	align=center	1 69.92	align=center	1 120.43	align=center bgcolor=gold	1 190.35
2017–18 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 23–26, 2018	2018 Russian Junior Championships	align=center	13 69.99	align=center	17 125.29	align=center	14 195.28
2016–17 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
Feb. 28 – Mar. 5, 2017	2017 Cup of Tyrol	align=center	1 63.17	align=center	2 116.60	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 179.77