The agent of Evgenia Medvedeva has rejected reports the Russian figure skating starlet is flouting Covid-19 lockdown laws to train while in Japan, and further cited the country’s strict ‘Golden Week’ closures.
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Two-time skating world champion Medvedeva, who is currently staying in Japan, had been the target of fierce criticism after she posted a video of her performing her famous ‘Memoirs of a geisha’ routine in a Japanese park in front of sakura trees.
Angry locals took to social media to “send her back to Russia!” over the apparent flouting of the coronavirus quarantine in the country, going as far as to address the Russian embassy in Japan and accusing her of training at a skating rink in Hacinhohe.
However, agent Ari Zakaryan has rejected those claims and insisted that the 20-year-old is not training during quarantine, due mainly to the closure of any facilities during the country’s ‘Golden Week’.
“The ‘Golden Week’ of holidays runs from April 29 to May 6 in Japan, and everything is closed. And I know through talking to Japanese people, that at that time there no one trains, including Medvedeva. I am positive that she is not training,”Sport Express reported Zakaryan as saying.
I miss ice??❤️ #memoiresofageisha
Zakaryan also shed light on the reasons Medvedeva had travelled to and ended up staying in Japan despite recent tight travel restrictions due to the coronavirus crisis.
“Why did she go to Japan? She had a planned show ‘Prism on Ice’, and I think that at the moment of traveling, she considered that it would still take place.
“Another show – ‘Fantasy on Ice’ – was canceled only on April 20. Therefore there were reasons to be sure there would be no cancellation.”
Нашла?
At the beginning of April Japan declared a nationwide state of emergency due to the outbreak and plans to extend its strict lockdown for at least a month. Japan has recorded 14,516 official cases of coronavirus infection which has resulted in 466 deaths.
