The 2007 European Figure Skating Championships continued Wednesday in Warsaw, Poland, with the Men’s Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating.
Men, Short Program
The Men opened today’s competition with the Short Program. It was an exciting competition at a high level. To the surprise of many, Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic captured the lead, edging France’s Brian Joubert. Sergei Davydov (BLR) came in third.
Verner had drawn to skate last out of the 32 competitors. The Czech Champion put out the performance of his life, nailing a solid triple flip-triple toe combination, a triple Axel, triple Lutz as well as fast spins and steps. He earned a level four for the change foot sit spin and a level three for the other two spins and the straight line step sequence. The 20-year-old scored 76.56 points (41.114/35.42) for his entertaining routine to “Toccata and Fugue”, surpassing his previous personal best of 71.30 points. When he realized that he placed first, he jumped up and down in the Kiss & Cry. “It’s hard to describe my feelings, because these are the European Championships and I drew the last one (starting number) in such a good group with those guys sitting around me”, Verner said at the post-event press conference. “It was quite a lot of pressure. I tried not to look at them and at how they skated, so I didn’t know anything about what they did in their programs. I just concentrated on my work. So I did what I usually do in practice and I’m happy. Now finally I can show in competition what I can do in practice.”
Joubert produced a high triple Axel, a triple flip and three level-four spins in his dynamic performance to “Die another day” (James Bond soundtrack), but he stumbled out of his quadruple toeloop and had no combination. The reigning World silver medalist collected 75.18 points (37.82/37.36). “I am a bit disappointed because I’m second after the short program for the first time this season. I had a big mistake on the combination jump and lost a lot of points. But the rest of the program was clean”, Joubert told the press. “It’s very close with Tomas Verner (in points), it will be interesting tomorrow. We’re going to see a good fight. The most upsetting thing is this error that I didn’t do in practice.” He added that it is his goal to include three quadruple jumps in his free skating.
Skating to a lyrical piece named “Hymn to the moon”, Davydov landed a triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination, a triple flip. His spins were graded a level four and three. The 27-year-old earned a new personal best of 70.14 points (37.47/32.67). “The third place after the short program is a big surprise for me. I made a few little errors, the program could have been cleaner, but overall I’m still pleased with it”, Davydov commented. “When I placed 5th in 2001 at the Europeans I actually didn’t skate that well, it was just accidentally that I placed 5th. After that I was always bothered by something. I had some little injuries, some off ice problems. Now I’m ready to fight and I think I still can improve”, he answered when asked what has happened since 2001, when he achieved his best result at Europeans so far.
The skaters ranked fourth to sixth are within striking distance of the podium. Kevin van der Perren (BEL) completed a triple Axel, triple flip-triple toe and a triple Lutz to come in fourth at 67.18 points. Andrei Lutai’s (RUS) performance included a triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe combination and at triple loop. He finished fifth (66.97 points). Alban Preaubert (FRA) in sixth place is not far behind at 66.10 points. The Frenchman hit a solid triple Axel, but his triple flip-double toeloop combination was shaky and he stepped out of his triple Lutz.
Pairs, Free Skating
Traditionally the first medals were awarded in the Pairs event. Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany skated to the gold, while Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov (RUS) claimed the silver medal. Poland’s Dorota Siudek/Mariusz Siudek earned the bronze.
Siudek/Siudek skated first out of the leading couples. The husband-and-wife team excited the crowd with a strong performance to a medley of music by Frederic Chopin that included a double Axel-double toeloop sequence, a throw triple loop, a triple twist, throw triple Salchow and their trademark difficult lifts with variations. Their only mistake came when Siudek doubled the side by side toeloop. The crowd roared for each element they performed. The Polish team scored 113.10 points (58.22 element score/54.88 program component score) and accumulated a total score of 170.91 points.
Next up were Petrova/Tikhonov, who stood in second place. Tikhonov’s side by side toeloop and double Axels were shaky, but the two-time European Champions produced interesting lifts, a triple twist, throw triple loop and Salchow in their “Moonlight Sonata” program. The couple from St. Petersburg picked up 117.39 points (58.12/59.27) and had a total of 179.61.
The overnight leaders Savchenko/Szolkowy competed last. Skating to “The Mission”, the Germans put out an entrancing performance that featured a throw triple flip, a triple toe-triple toe sequence, a triple twist, throw triple Salchow as well as strong lifts. They maintained good speed throughout the program and showed interesting transitions between the highlights. Savchenko/Szolkowy earned 134.01 points (69.38/64.63), significantly improving their previous personal best of 123.62 points, established exactly one year ago at the European Championships, where they won the silver. They racked up a total score of 199.39 to win the gold medal. It was the first European title for Germany since 1995, when Mandy Wötzel/Ingo Steuer had claimed the pair skating gold in Dortmund. Steuer now is coaching Savchenko/Szolkowy. Savchenko/Szolkowy also ended the reign of Russian pairs, who had taken the gold for the past eleven years.
Petrova/Tikhonov got the silver medal, their eighth medal at Europeans in the nine years they have been competing in the event. Siudek/Siudek claimed their fourth medal at European Championships.
“I just wanted to do the same I can do in practice. I focused on each element, and my goal was to land every single one”, Savchenko said. “It (the performance) was strong. It was hard, but it was fun. With each element we did, we started to smile more. At the end we just felt overwhelming joy. The last two elements were difficult to do for me, because I was so excited. It was the best program we’ve done in our career so far”, Szolkowy continued.
“We didn’t cope with everything as well as we could have. After two weeks of hard work and preparation we weren’t recovered enough, but we did well”, Petrova told the press. “It was nice to see that our friends and competitors are loved so much and were received so well, because we have the same in Russia, they love us there, too”, she added when asked about how they felt to skate after Siudek/Siudek. “The audience actually made us to concentrate even more on our performance. It actually helped us in our concentration”, Tikhonov added.
“Our dream was to skate here and quit skating, winning a medal at home. Each medal we’ve won was a highlight, we remember each medal and each one is important, but this one is more important, because we won it at home. The crowd gave us more energy. Skating here was wonderful. Before we entered the ice, our trainer said “Skate for yourselves”, we did it but we also skated for the great audience”, Mariusz Siudek said.
Julia Obertas/Sergei Slavnov (RUS) came in fourth at 156.96 points. Obertas doubled the side by side toeloop and singled the Axel, she also fell on the throw triple loop. Tatiana Volosozhar/ Stanislav Morozov (UKR) were ranked fourth in the Free Skating and finished fifth overall with 155.35 points. They landed a side by side triple Salchow, a high triple twist and throw triple Salchow and loop.
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2007 continue Thursday with the Original Dance and the Men’s Free Skating.
Results
