Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy (GER) Photo by Teunis Versluis

The 2008 European Figure Skating Championships continued Wednesday in Zagreb, Croatia, with the Men’s Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating.

Men, Short Program

The Men opened today’s competition with the Short Program. Verner of the Czech Republic took the lead over France’s Brian Joubert. Stéphane Lambiel of Switzerland came in third.

Verner, who skated last like he had exactly one year ago in this event, put out a strong performance to “Gypsy Swing”, hitting a triple flip-triple toe, a triple Axel and a triple Lutz. The reigning European silver medalist also was awarded a level four for his change foot sit spin and his straight line footwork. The Czech scored 79.03 points (41.46 element score/37.37 program component score). “The situation felt even worse than last year. It was wobbly. The ice is very hard, and I was the last to skate. We need to skate clean edges and if you do it fast there is a chance of 90 percent that we slip. These are costly mistakes. I knew that Brian (Joubert) didn’t have such a high score. And also Stéphane (Lambiel) didn’t have such a high score. I didn’t see it, but I saw his face and I knew that he wasn’t perfect. Then you know there is a chance, but as soon as you think about it, everything is over. You have to stay focused and that’s what I’m going to do now”, Verner announced.

Joubert opened his program to “All for you” by Sebastien Damiani with a quad-triple toeloop combination, but he did a three turn out of the quad. He nailed a triple Lutz, but then fell on his triple Axel. The Frenchman recovered to complete strong spins and footwork, earning a level four for the combination spin and a level three for the other two spins as well as for the circular steps. The 21-year-old collected 75.25 points (39.43/36.82). “I am very disappointed. I was nervous, and that's why I was very tired. I couldn’t breathe. I did two mistakes on jumps (three turn on quad toe, fall on triple Axel). I think the reason why I was nervous was that my last international competition (Skate Canada) was so long time ago, and I was sick. I was not really ready for this competition. It was hard”, the reigning World and European Champion commented.

Performing to the Tango “Carne Cruda”, Lambiel went down on the triple Axel as well and then downgraded his planned quad-triple toe combination to a triple-double. He produced a triple Lutz and was awarded a level four for all his three spins and a level three for both step sequences. The two-time World Champion scored 71.78 points (35.79/36.99).  “The triple Axel was a good attempt but I couldn't catch it. Then I just hesitated on the quadruple toe and only did a triple. It's hard to get into the program after (that kind of a start). It's not a big difference (to Brian Joubert). I just want to do a clean long program tomorrow. The most important thing is to do all the elements and the result will come”, Lambiel told the press.

Kevin van der Perren (BEL) is sitting in fourth at 66.33 points. The reigning European bronze medallist put down his hand on the first jump of his quad-double toeloop combination and doubled the Lutz, but he hit a nice triple Axel and got a level four for all of his three spins. Kristoffer Berntsson (SWE) came in fifth. His performance included a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and a triple Axel, but he touched down with his hand on the triple flip (65.62 points). Wrapping up the top six is Sergei Voronov (RUS), who pulled off a quad-double toe combination but his triple Axel was downgraded (64.26 points). 

Pairs, Free Skating

The Pairs event concluded with the Free Skating. Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany claimed their second consecutive European title. Russia’s Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov skated to the silver and Yuko Kawaguchi/Alexander Smirnov captured the bronze.

Savchenko/Szolkowy had drawn to skate last out of the 15 couples and gave a strong performance to “L’Oiseau” from Cirque du Soleil that featured a high throw triple flip, a triple twist, difficult lifts and spins as well as a throw triple Salchow in the last second of the program. They also landed a side by side triple toe-triple toe sequence, but Szolkowy had to save the second jump and then he popped the planned side by side triple Salchow into a single while she did a beautiful triple. The current World bronze medalists also picked up points for their spins, spirals and footwork. Both spins and the spiral sequence were graded a level four, the footwork and the death spiral were a level three. Savchenko/Szolkowy received a new seasons best of 132.03 points and accumulated a total of 202.39 points, surpassing their previous personal best of 199.39 points that they had established one year ago at the European Championships. “It wasn't perfect but we have something to work on, but right now we want to enjoy the medals”, Savchenko told the press. “(Winning) the first time was surprising and it was nicer, to be honest. This is also great but different. “At Worlds in Sweden, it's my last chance to show you my triple Salchow and I will show it”, Szolkowy added. “It was the second time we scored over 200 points. The first time was at German Nationals but Nationals have their own laws. This time it counts. Points are not the most important for us, more important is that we skate well, to have the feeling that we skated well. Points don't count for us”, he explained.

Mukhortova/Trankov opened their routine set to a Prelude by Sergei Rachmaninov with an excellent side by side triple toe-double toeloop combination followed by a triple twist and a side by side triple Salchow and an Axel Lasso lift, but then their throw loop didn’t take off and was a single. Mukhortova fell on the throw triple Salchow as well, but the 2005 World Junior Champions fought back to produce a level-four pair combination spin and two good lifts. The Russians picked up 106.68 points (53.32/54.36) and racked up a total of 169.41 points to win the silver medal in what was their debut at the European Championships. “This is our first European championship and we won a silver medal.  We are not so happy with our skating, but we’re happy with our result”, Trankov said. “I don't know what happened with our throws. Maybe we were nervous and focused on our jumps. At the moment the jumps aren’t an easy element for us, maybe we concentrated more on the jumps and were too relaxed for the throws. We are happy to be the first (best ranked) Russian pair, that’s important for us.” 

Skating to the “Love Story” soundtrack, Kawaguchi/Smirnov hit a throw quadruple Salchow, but it was a bit shaky on the landing. The Russian Champions also completed strong lifts that were all graded a level four and a level-four side by side spin. However, Smirnov struggled with the triple toeloop-triple toeloop sequence, stepping out of the first one and falling on the second. The sequence wasn’t recognized as such anymore and the second triple toe didn’t count. He also singled the side by side double Axel. The couple was awarded 106.00 points (53.64/53.36) and moved up one spot to take the bronze at 167.25 points overall. “These are our first Europeans and we’re very happy with the bronze medal, but we made mistakes in the short and long program”, Kawaguchi admitted. “We have something to work on for the next competition. This is my first time to land the quad throw in competition, so I’m very pleased with that”, she continued.

Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (UKR) slipped from third to fourth after he singled the side by side Salchow and they aborted their Axel Lasso lift. But they produced a high triple twist, a throw triple Salchow and loop (167.25 points). Arina Ushakova/Sergei Karev (RUS) finished fifth. Their program contained a good throw triple loop and Salchow as well as a triple twist, but they crashed on a lift (130.34 points).

For full results, please click on Results