The competitions at the 2005 European Championships concluded Saturday with the Ladies Free Skating in Torino, Italy.
Ladies, Free Program
Irina Slutskaya of Russia won her sixth European title, capping off a successful week for the Russian team by securing a gold medal sweep. Finland’s Susanna Pöykiö took the silver, a historical medal for her country. Elena Liashenko of the Ukraine claimed the bronze medal.
Slutskaya opened her program to ”Wonderland” and ”Whispers in the Mirror” with a triple Lutz, but then she ran into trouble, popping the Salchow and doubling the loop. She seemed tired. The Muscovite also missed a triple Lutz, but then fought back to produce a triple flip, a triple toeloop-double toeloop combination and a double Axel. She earned extra points for her difficult spins and spiral sequence and was awarded a score of 103.69 points (47.16 element score/57.33 program component score). Overall, she picked up an event score of 168.71 points. Slutskaya has now equaled the record six titles of Germany’s Katarina Witt and Sonia Henie (NOR). ”It wasn’t great today, but I’m happy that I’m first”, Slutskaya told the press. ”I was well prepared, but it’s still difficult for me. I missed the last season and I still have to take medication (due to her illness), and sometimes I don’t feel comfortable. I skated well in other competitions, but you can’t be always good. Now I’ll take some rest.”
Pöykiö, who skated first in the final flight, landed a triple Salchow-double loop combination, a triple Lutz-double toeloop combination and three other good triple jumps in her romantic routine to ”Romeo and Juliet” by Nino Rota. The 22-year-old showed nice spins, but she seemed to tire towards the end, singling the Axel and doubling the final jump, a flip. The Finnish Champion scored 102.30 points (49.21/53.09) for her Free Skating, which added up to a total of 158.93 points. She moved up from third to second place. Pöykiö is the first Lady from Finland to medal at an ISU senior Championship. She was already the first Lady from Finland to ever win a medal at an ISU Championship when she captured the bronze at the 2001 World Junior Championships. ”After I singled the Axel and doubled the flip, I thought, bye bye medal. Now I’m so happy, I can’t find any words”, Pöykiö commented. ”I can’t yet realize that I made some history today. But I made history before, when I won a medal at Junior Worlds (in 2001).”
Susanna Pöykiö, Irina Slutskaya, Elena Liashenko
(c) Teunis Versluis
Skating to the ”Frida” soundtrack Liashenko landed a solid triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and a high triple Salchow, but she two-footed the second triple Lutz. The landings of three other triple jumps were flawed, but her spins were good and she maintained good speed throughout her performance. Liashenko was awarded 102.86 points (51.15/51.71) for her program and ranked second in the Free Skating. She moved up from fourth place after the Short Program to take the bronze. Exactly ten years ago, at the 1995 European Championships, Liashenko had won her first of now three European medals, a bronze. She got the silver last year. „It wasn’t a bad skate, but there were some mistakes. They happened out of nervousness, because I really wanted to have a medal.” Referring to the fact that she is competing at a high level for ten years now, she answered: ”It is difficult to be always at the top. It’s easier to win once something than staying at a high level for such a long period of time. If I won the medal ten years ago by chance, so now and last year I earned it through a lot of hard work and deserved it.”
Julia Sebestyen (HUN) gave a sub-par performance to slip from second to fourth place in the final result (157.13 points). 2004 European bronze medallist Elena Sokolova (RUS) remained in fifth place with 150.88 points.
The 2005 European Championships conclude Sunday with the Exhibition Gala.
Results
Event website
