{"id":4544,"date":"2026-09-28T15:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vsaworld.com\/blog\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2026-09-28T15:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:38:17","slug":"semenenko-wins-nepela-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vsaworld.com\/blog\/semenenko-wins-nepela-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Semenenko Wins Nepela Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Evgeni Semenenko \u00a9 Pinterest<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evgeni Semenenko turned a career-best short program into victory at the 2026 ISU Challenger Series Nepela Memorial<\/strong>in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Individual Neutral Athlete delivered a 101.16-point short program before maintaining his lead in the free skate to finish first with 292.09 points overall<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 23-year-old opened his short program with a quadruple loop and followed it with a quadruple Salchow-triple toe-loop combination. He then fought through a difficult triple Axel to become the first skater in the competition to break the 100-point barrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 101.16 was a personal best and gave him a narrow advantage over Italy’s Daniel Grassl, who scored 99.10. Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan was third after the short program with 95.98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The free skate brought another strong performance. Semenenko landed five quadruple jumps<\/strong> and scored 190.93 for the segment, giving him a total of 292.09 and victories in both segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grassl and Shaidorov Complete the Podium<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Grassl remained Semenenko’s closest challenger throughout the competition. The Italian scored 179.70 in the free skate and finished second overall with 278.80 points<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Shaidorov, Nepela Memorial represented his first competition since one of the biggest moments of his career: his unexpected Olympic gold at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kazakh skater had entered the Olympic free skate in fifth place before moving dramatically up the standings to claim the men’s singles title. In Bratislava, he finished third with 272.75 points<\/strong>, scoring 176.77 in the free skate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final men’s top 10 were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Evgeni Semenenko \u2014 292.09<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Daniel Grassl \u2014 278.80<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Mikhail Shaidorov \u2014 272.75<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Gleb Lutfullin \u2014 251.46<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Adam Siao Him Fa \u2014 249.35<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Adam Hagara \u2014 225.18<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Vladimir Samoilov \u2014 220.05<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Samy Hammi \u2014 218.10<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Andreas Nordeback \u2014 216.39<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Grigory Fedorov \u2014 213.80<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n