Trusova won the first international tournament in five years

Vice-champion of the Olympics in Beijing in women’s single skating Alexander Ignatov (before marriage – Trusov) took first place at the international tournament of the Challenger series in Almaty – the Denis Ten Memorial.

In total, for the short and free program, she scored 226.01 points.

In second place is Korean Kim Yoo Jae (209.20), the third was the representative of Kazakhstan Sophia Samodelkina (204.36)

Russian Maria Zakharova took fifth place (187.77), Dina Khusnutdinova – seventh (185.70).

The tournament in Kazakhstan became Trusova’s second international competition since the 2022/23 season. In August 2025, she gave birth to a son, and this year she returned to the sport and was included in the reserve team of Russia. In early September, the figure skater at the first international tournament in four years - Kinoshita Group Cup Challenger in Tokyo - took second place.

Before the Denis Tena Memorial, Trusova last won an international tournament in October 2021 - at the Grand Prix stage in the United States (Skate America).

The International Skating Union (ISU) allowed Russians to participate in their competitions in a neutral status, but so far they have a limited number of quotas for major tournaments due to the lack of rating points.

The ISU Challenger Series is an international figure skating competition series that has been held under the auspices of ISU since 2014. It serves as an intermediate link between ordinary international starts and the Grand Prix series.