The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2007 opened Tuesday in Warsaw, Poland, with the Compulsory Dance and the Pairs Short Program. The European Figure Skating Championships are held in Poland for the second time in history. The first and only time Poland has hosted an ISU Championship dates back to 1908.

Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Championships started with the Compulsory Dance. The Compulsory Dance drawn for the 2007 European Championships was the Golden Waltz. The Golden Waltz was created by Marina Klimova/Sergei Ponomarenko (RUS) and their coach Natalia Dubova.
Competition was tough, and there were a few surprises. Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France grabbed the lead while Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin (RUS) edged reigning World Champions Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski (BUL) by 0.43 points to take second place.
Delobel/Schoenfelder put out a very confident performance of the Waltz, showing precise steps and good flow. The 2005 European bronze medalists earned 39.57 points (20.47 element score/19.10 program component score). “We did a great waltz, it was easy, fluid, relaxed. It is a difficult dance, but it felt easy today”, Delobel commented. “Our goal is to do a competition without any mistakes. We’re first now but it’s very close between us, the Bulgarians (Denkova/Staviski) and the Russians (Domnina/Shabalin). They are strong performers”, her partner added.
Domnina/Shabalin produced a strong performance of the Waltz as well. Domina wore a stunning white dress while he wore a black suit. The couple scored 38.99 points (19.91/19.08). “We skated as well as we could, there was just a little problem. This morning in practice I twisted my foot a bit, and I was somewhat careful”, Shabalin told the press. “It (their placement) comes as a little surprise to us, but we thought that it is possible. We were a bit nervous, because we’re now the couple number one in Russia, but we stayed focused”, he continued.
Denkova/Staviski had so skate second out of the 27 couples. Their Golden Waltz was technically strong and the couple expressed the soft and lilting character of the dance very well. The Bulgarians were awarded 38.56 points (19.68/18.88). “We are enjoying ourselves on the ice. Obviously, it’s a big minus for us that we don’t have a judge here in this competition, but we try not to think about it. We skate for ourselves and for the audience. Many fans have come to see us”, Denkova said. “The Golden Waltz is easy to skate for us, it’s actually one of our favourite dances”, Staviski commented. “It doesn’t matter for a real professional. We have skated on smaller ice surface before, and the two meters difference doesn’t matter so much”, he added, referring to the size of the ice rink.

Competition was also close between the next three couples. Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali (ITA) came in fourth at 34.53 points, while Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski (RUS) were fifth (33.46 points). Sinead Kerr/John Kerr (GBR) are currently ranked sixth, but they’re just 0.02 points behind Khokhlova/Novitski at 33.44.

Pairs, Short Program
The competition continued with the Pairs Short Program. Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) took the lead with Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov of Russia and Poland’s Dorota Siudek/ Mariusz Siudek coming in second and third.
Savchenko/Szolkowy had to overcome a shaky start into their routine set to “Once upon a Time in Mexico” when she fell on their opening throw triple flip. The reigning European silver medalists recovered to produce an excellent side by side triple toeloop, a triple twist and a difficult lift. The Germans were awarded a level four for the lift, the pair combination spin, the side by side spin and the spiral sequence. They collected a new personal best score of 65.38 points (36.15 element score/30.23 program component score).
“I opened too late, and there was no chance of landing the throw”, Savchenko explained. “As always we wanted to show our very best, to do a program without mistakes as we can do it in practice. The throw jump didn’t work today. But we’re relaxed going into the free skating”, Szolkowy said.

Skating to “Sarabande”, Petrova/Tikhonov completed a solid side by side triple toeloop, a lift with an interesting twist-exit, a triple twist and level-four spins, but Petrova stepped out of the throw triple loop and the death spiral was only graded a level one. The two-time European Champions scored 62.22 points (32.91/29.31). “Our skating tonight was ok. We’re happy with it, but we had a few mistakes. There was a mistake on the throw jump and the death spiral wasn’t so good. We don’t care so much about placements, but we care about our performance. This is our last season, and we want to win here”, Tikhonov said. “I’m upset about the mistake. Maybe I was too relaxed. It’s too bad, because usually I do good throws”, Petrova added.
Siudek/Siudek delighted their home crowd with their performance to a Polish movie soundtrack that featured a throw triple loop, a triple twist and a one-armed lift. However, both struggled on the landing of the side by side triple toeloop, and they lost sync in the side by side spin. The husband-and-wife team earned 57.81 points (32.07/25.74). “It is like if the biggest dream came true now. It was really worth it to stay for one more year”, Dorota Siudek said about competing in their home country. “This was our best program in this season, we didn’t make any major mistakes, only the step-out of the landing of the toeloop. We were very nervous today, we didn’t want to disappoint the audience, but the support started the moment we stepped onto the ice. It was great”, her husband told the press.

Julia Obertas/Sergei Slavnov (RUS) came in fourth at 57.04 points. She stepped out of the triple toe and their triple twist was flawed. Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (UKR) are currently standing in fifth place. They produced a huge triple twist, but Volosozhar put down her hand on the throw triple loop while Morozov turned out on the landing of the triple toeloop.

The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2007 continue Wednesday with the Men’s Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating.

Results