The 2006 European Figure Skating Championships continued Thursday in Lyon, France, with the Original Dance and the Ladies Free Skating.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
The Ice Dancing event continued with the Original Dance, the Latin Combination. The standings shuffeled. Two-time European Champions Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov (RUS) moved up from third place to take the lead ahead of Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov (UKR) and Lithuania’s Margarita Drobiazko/ Povilas Vanagas.
Navka/Kostomarov delivered a solid performance to Cha Cha, Rhumba and Samba, completing a dance combination spin, a curve lift with him in a spread eagle position and a rotational lift. All these elements were graded a level four by the Technical Panel. The Rhumba part in the middle was highlighted by an intricate diagonal step sequence right on the beat. The two-time European and World Champions received 60.79 points (30.16 element score/30.63 program component score) and accumulated a total score of 99.00 points to move up from third place after the Compulsory Dance.
When Navka saw their marks and realized that they had moved up, she looked relieved. “It was like a stone fell off my soul”, she described her feelings. “When we saw the marks of the Compulsory Dance, we saw that most of the judges put us first, but for some reason the random draw wasn’t in our favor. It was difficult to pull ourselves together after this. It was hard to sleep those two nights after the compulsory dance. But I concentrated on the skating. I told myself, this can happen at the Olympics. You have to compete against yourself.”
Photo: Navka/Kostomarov © Teunis Versluis
Kostomarov added: “Today we skated very well, and so we’re very pleased that we’re in the lead. We hope to stay there. This is a quite difficult European Championship for us. But what can we do, all are in the same boat, and we’ll fight.”
Grushina/Goncharov put out a strong performance to Samba, Rhumba and Samba as well. The reigning European silver medalist executed a level-four straight line lift and rotational lift as well a level three dance combination spin. The husband-and-wife team was awarded 58.79 points (28.38/30.41) and they slipped to second with a total of 97.61 points so far. They ranked third in the Original Dance. “I felt very good today, but of course I felt better yesterday! I’m glad about the skating. In my heart, it doesn’t matter which placement we achieve. We need to skate great tomorrow, too, and I’m looking forward to it”, Goncharov commented.
Drobiazko/Vanagas skated first out of the top contenders. The married couple produced an interesting routine to Samba, Rhumba, Cha Cha that featured a straight line lift with him skating one one leg and her in an upside-down position and a well synchronized side by side footwork sequence. Almost of the end of the performance, Drobiazko’s bracelet came loose and fell off, but this small incident didn’t distract the dancers. They earned 56.95 points (27.68/29.27) and were ranked fifth in this portion of the event, but are standing overall in third place with 95.29 points. “It was just a practice. Our last competition was in October. We didn’t have the Grand Prix competitions, so I just told myself to take it as a practice (before the Olympic Games)”, Drobiazko told the press. “I felt it coming loose and I knew I would not be able to continue to skate with it, so I just did an arm movement to throw it away”, she went on, referring to the bracelet.
Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France had drawn to skate last and excited the crowd with a lively Mambo and Rhumba routine that contained a difficult side by side footwork line, fast footwork and a curve and rotational lift. The French Champions scored 59.02 points (29.46/29.56) and were second in the OD, but remained in fourth place with 94.88 points. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (ISR) turned in an energetic dance to Cha Cha, Rhumba, Samba and picked up 57.03 points (28.74/28.29). The ranked fourth in the OD but are still in fifth place with a total of 91.82 points.
Ladies, Free Skating
The Ladies event concluded with the final Free Skating.
First to skate in the last flight was Sarah Meier, who stood in third place after the Short Program. The Swiss produced a solid performance to “Bolero to Violin and Orchestra”, landing four good triple jumps, but she stepped out of her first triple Lutz and doubled her first flip. Meier had 106.29 points (52.17 element score/54.12 component score), beating her personal best by almost nine points. She accumulated a total score of 167.16 points and needed to wait and see what her competitors would do. Newcomer Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia, in fourth place after the Short Program, was up next. The 16-year-old hit four triples as well, but her first Lutz was two-footed and she run out of steam towards the end, singling a Salchow and the Axel. The Georgian still set a new personal best for herself with 93.08 points (44.98/48.10) and collected 153.27 points in total. Russia’s Viktoria Volchkova then couldn’t follow up on her solid Short Program and faded to 9th with 131.88 points after popping some jumps and falling on a triple toe.
Carolina Kostner of Italy took the ice. Skating to “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi, the reigning World bronze medalist nailed a spectacular triple flip-triple toe combination right out of the gate. She also landed a triple Lutz, loop and double Axel, but the double Axel-double toeloop combination was shaky. She recovered to do a double Axel-triple Salchow sequence before she tired visibly, falling on an underroated Salchow. The Italian showed also nice spins three of wich received a level three and a level-four spiral sequence. Kostner earned 112.41 points (54.32/59.09) and picked up a total score of 172.45, thus surpassing Meier. With two more skaters to come, she knew she would be on the podium at Europeans for the first time.
Elena Sokolova was up next. Her dynamic program to “Romeo and Juliet” featured a triple Lutz-double toe-double loop combination, a triple flip, Salchow, another Lutz, a triple loop and toeloop as well as a double Axel-double toeloop combination and a level-four combination spin. When she went into her footwork sequence, a big smile lit up her face, and the audience cheered for her. Sokolova received 116.93 points (57.57/59.36), improving her previous personal best by 11.47 points. With a total of 177.81, the Muscovite took the lead at this time. But six-time European Champion Irina Slutskaya was still to skate. The reigning World Champion seemed very focused when she went out and took her time to get to her starting spot. She knew she had to do well. Slutskaya opened her Flamenco themed routine with a solid triple Lutz-double loop combination, followed by a triple Salchow-double loop-double toeloop and a flying camel spin with change of edge and change of position that was graded a level four. A triple flip was next, but the 26-year- old was off balance on the landing and had to put down her hand. She recovered instantly and reeled off a triple flip-double toe only seconds later, a triple loop, toeloop and double Axel. The layback spin and the final combination spin were awarded a level four by the Technical Panel, and Slutskaya never lost energy throughout the whole program. She earned 126.81 points (63.32/63.49) points for this performance and defended her overnight lead to win the event with 193.24 points. Slutkaya made history as she won her seventh title, surpassing the record of Sonia Henie (NOR) and Katarina Witt (GER) who both had won six titles in their careers. Ten years ago, a 16-year-old Slutskaya had won her first European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She competed in her tenth European Championship this year, having missed only the event in 1999 (she did not qualify for the National team) and in 2004 (due to illness). “Katarina Witt was for me always the best skater, and I never thought that I’ll beat her record”, Slutskaya said. “I put my name into the history book, and I think that’s good. Maybe someone else will sit in a press conference ten, 20 years from now and says, she beat the record of Irina Slutskaya”, she laughed. At this time, I thought it’s just the beginning, now I think it might be the end”, she answered when asked about rememberin her first title in 1996.
“For this season, it’s definitely my best skating and my best result. Hopefully it will be (even) better. I went out to do everything what I can do and basically I can say that generally I did just that. This definitely was a good warm up for the Olympics, and it was a serious message for the judges. The fact that I did a new personal best speaks for itself”, Sokolova told the press.
“I must admit I was very nervous all week long. I felt like there were a lot of eyes on me and there was a lot of pressure. Now I feel the pressure is relieved because I skated a quite good program. I still can do better. There is some time left before the Olympic Games and I will continue to work like this”, Kostner said.
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2006 continue Friday with the Men’s Short Program and the Free Dance.
Results
