Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava: Old souls with young eyes<\/p>\n
Pairs skaters Metelkina and Berulava teamed up ahead of the 2023-24 season and instantly got their partnership noticed.<\/p>\n
They swept all their junior competitions that season, including winning the junior world title, finished second at the senior European championships and were seventh at the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n Their second season brought even more success: a first Grand Prix medal and victory, third place at the 2024 Grand Prix Final<\/a>, and fourth place at the 2025 World Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is strong, determined\u2026 very determined,\u201d Metelkina said about why her partnership with Berulava has worked so well. \u201cHe is used to always achieving the goal that he sets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe understands my character and accepts me for who I am,\u201d Berulava added. \u201cShe is like clear water, just calm. And like me, she is determined; she wants to achieve everything. Sometimes she wants that real bad. This can get in the way, but I\u2019m the same way too.\u201d<\/p>\n It was not only the stellar results that put the Georgian pair into the spotlight, but also their unconventional program choices.<\/p>\n Their free from last season, set to Saltillo\u2019s \u201cA Necessary End\u201d, was a story of an old man who gets a full rewind on life during a final dance with his lifelong companion, death.<\/p>\n \u201cI am an old man at the start of the program. She is my death. In those four minutes, I re-live my whole life in front of my eyes,\u201d Berulava said of Sergei Plishkin and Ivan Malafeev\u2019s choreographed tale. \u201cIn the end, I leave\u201d<\/p>\n While the program seems eerie at times, Metelkina \u2013 who wears a dress that resembles the torn Grim Reaper cape and ends the skate by putting a black hood over her head \u2013 stresses that the takeaway is positive.<\/p>\n \u201cI am with him the whole way, and I\u2019m not a villain. I will only take him when it is his time to go,\u201d Metelkina said. \u201cThe message is that what we consider \u2018evil\u2019 is not always bad. Death is always seen as something scary, but in our story, I protect Luka in some parts of his life, and I take him only when it is his time.\u201d<\/p>\n The ambulance sirens and late-night\u00a0phone calls\u00a0in Metelkina and Berulava\u2019s free skate this season are also not meant to alarm spectators.<\/p>\n Choreographed by Beno\u00eet Richaud, it is a story of separation, but ultimately of coming together.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is about two people who lose each other and then find each other again,\u201d Metelkina said. \u201cIt all ends well. Everything is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava: Old souls with young eyes Pairs skaters Metelkina and Berulava teamed up ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-237608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}