The 2008 European Figure Skating Championships continued Wednesday in Zagreb, Croatia, with the Original Dance and the Men’s Free Skating.
Ice Dancing, Original Dance
The Original Dance of the 2007/2008 season is the “Country/Folk Dance”. The 25 couples in the event presented a wide range of styles and music, from Russian Folklore over French, South American, Greek and Austrian dances to Gypsy and Egyptian themes.
Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France defended their lead after the Compulsory Dance ahead of Russia’s Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin and Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski.
Delobel/Schoenfelder had opted for a French Gavotte from the Bretagne, named “Replique”. The defending European Champions delivered an entertaining dance that featured intricate steps, a straight line-lift and a dance combination spin that were graded a level four. The couple effectively used scarves in their program. They earned 62.72 points (31.63 element score/31.09 program component score) and now have 103.97 overall heading into the final Free Dance. “We can be very satisfied with what we did today. We really got into it. I was a bit tense in the beginning, and then it’s easy to make errors, but I think we dealt well with it”, Delobel commented. “We’ll go into it (the Free Dance) with positive emotions. We had great practices here all week and we have new costumes. We’ll really have to do well but I think that’s exactly what we will do with our “Piano Lesson” (program)”, she added. Schoenfelder agreed. “We won the Original Dance, and that was the second part of the competition that we did well. It gives us a good feeling for the free dance, and if we finish our competition like that we’ve a chance to win. It’s very close as it was to be expected and everything will be decided in the free dance”, he said.
Indeed, Domnina/Shabalin are trailing the leaders by just 1.82 points at 102.15. The reigning Grand Prix Final Champions produced a level-four dance spin, a level four circular step sequence and a one armed rotational lift in their dynamic Cossack dance, but Shabalin was off on the last twizzles in the side by side footwork and this part of the element was graded only a level two. The Russians scored 61.90 (30.86/31.04) points. “My knee is fine. It had nothing to do with the error on the twizzle. On the contrary, we did the twizzles so well in the warm up that maybe we lost a bit control (relaxed too much) in the actual performance”, Shabalin said. He had undergone meniscus surgery on December 24. “It was our mistake. It’s too bad”, Domnina commented on the error. ”You never know. If something doesn’t go well on the warm up, you start to worry and to get nervous. If the warm up goes well, you start to loose control.”
Performing to a Russian Gypsy Dance, Khokhlova/Novitski completed a dance combination spin with interesting positions as well as a level-four circular step sequence, a rotational and a straight line lift. However, Novitski as well struggled with his last twizzle of the midline steps, but the couple still got a level three. The Russian Champions collected 60.03 points (31.02/29.01) and have accumulated 97.40 so far. “I messed up the last twizzle a bit, I’m not sure if that had an influence”, Novitski explained, referring to the level three for the midline footwork. “We’ll have to look at it again. We feel great here, there is such a great reception by the audience, there are Russian fans, who especially travelled to Croatia to support us. You try not to think about it (medalling), but obviously it’s in the back of you mind. We’re really looking forward to the free dance. We have a great free dance where we play the role of demon and witch.”
Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali (ITA) are within striking distance of the podium at 95.66 points in fourth place. They presented a typical Italian dance. Sinead Kerr/John Kerr (GBR) moved up from sixth to fifth with their Scottish Dance in which John wore a kilt. The brother-and-sister team got a level four for all of the six elements and now have 92.09 points. Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat (FRA) dropped one spot to sixth. The spin in their Flamenco Dance was graded only a level two (91.55 points).
Men, Free Skating
In what was an exciting Men’s event, Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic fended off the challenge of Switzerland’s Stéphane Lambiel to claim the European title. The bronze medal went to Brian Joubert of France.
Overnight leader Verner had drawn to skate first of the top three after the Short Program. Skating to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, the 21-year-old put down his hand on his opening quadruple toeloop but then nailed a triple flip-triple toe, a triple Lutz-double toe combination as well as a high triple Axel and three more triple jumps. The 2007 European silver medallist earned all level three and fours for his spins and footwork, and his only other mistake was a singled Axel. Verner scored a new season best of 153.64 points (75.92 element score/77.72 program component score) and accumulated a total score of 232.67 points to claim the first gold medal for the Czech Republic in 16 years. Petr Barna was European Champion in 1992. Verner had waited backstage in the mixed zone until the final skater, Joubert, was done, and when the scores for the Frenchman came up, Verner realized immediately that he had won. He first silently hugged his coaches, then jumped up and down in joy on his way back to the ice. “I am so happy although this wasn't my best performance. I left my heart today on the ice, and judges and the audience recognized that. This gold medal is for my team, it is a final product of a great teamwork”, the skater told the press. “The main reason is that I kept fighting until the end. I hope this is not my last medal. Now I want to rest for a few days and I’ll start practicing again”, he continued.
The next top contender to skate was Lambiel. He doubled his planned triple Axel right at the beginning of the expressive Flamenco program but then pulled off a quad toe-double toe-double loop combination followed by a triple loop and a somewhat shaky triple flip-triple toe combination. He completed a triple Salchow, but the second jump in his triple Lutz-triple toe combo was cheated and downgraded, and he doubled the last jump, a flip. However, the Swiss produced excellent spins and footwork and picked up 153.46 points, which added up to a total of 225.24 points overall. Lambiel took the silver like he had in 2006. He didn’t compete in 2007 at Europeans. “I am very happy with my performance, even though it was not the best. I accept that Tomas was better today”, the two-time World Champion told the press. “I know I only did a double Axel in the beginning, but I did a good combination after that. There were some mistakes on jumps but the program was very dynamic and I skated it with a lot of energy. It was a great fight and you could feel the stress in the dressing room. I used the stress in my performance and I skated with my heart and with passion. In the six minute warm up my triple Axel was great and I knew I could do it, but it didn’t happen today”, he added.
Joubert was last to skate. He stood in second place after the Short Program. The Frenchman did a three-turn out of his opening quad toeloop, but landed a solid triple Salchow, a triple flip-triple toeloop combination and a triple Lutz-double toe in his routine set to a Metallica medley. However, he touched down with his hand on the triple Axel and struggled with the back end of his triple loop-double toe-double toe combination and stumbled out of a triple Lutz. The 23-year-old earned a level three for three of his spins and the circular footwork, but the upright spin was graded only a level one. Joubert was awarded 144.20 points (70.30/74.90) and was ranked fourth in the Free Skating. He slipped from second to third at 219.45 points total and claimed the bronze, his sixth consecutive medal at Europeans. Joubert has medalled in each European Championships since 2002 when he debuted at the event and took the bronze. “For me it's difficult. I'm very disappointed about the third place. Since the beginning of the season it has been difficult (for me), I have had a lot of problems. I was not in good condition to be ready for this competition, although today it was better”, the reigning World Champion said, referring to his illness in November when he came down with an unidentified virus. “I look forward to the World Championships. I don’t like to be third, I want to be first, that’s it”, he stated.
Sergei Voronov (RUS) gave a strong performance to finish third in the Free Skating and fourth overall at 210.13 points. He landed a quad toe and seven clean triples in his error-free Tango program. 2007 bronze medallist Kevin van der Perren (BEL) missed his opening quad toeloop and singled the Axel but then recovered to reel off six triples and strong spins to come in fifth (199.57 points). Adrian Schultheiss (SWE) also delivered a good performance that included seven triples and four level-four spins. He was ranked sixth with 184.94 points.
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2008 continues Friday with the Ladies’ Short Program and the Free Dance.
For full results, please click on Results
