Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (ISR), 2002 World bronze medalists
Chait: We changed the first part of our program because the judges claimed that we partly missed the theme. Now it’s more understandable for the judges. It’s more interesting for us to have a choice of rhythm.

Sakhnovski: Every time it’s difficult to skate and motivate yourself, it doesn’t matter which placement we have. But it’s a bit more difficult to get motivated after a worse placement.

Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov (UKR), winners of 3 Grand Prix events

Grushina: We’re very pleased with the performance. The audience was really warm and welcoming. It felt very easy to skate.

Sylwia Nowak/Sebastian Kolasinski (POL), 2003 National Champions

Nowak: We’re satisfied. We skated very well. The Polka is a funny and happy dance. We chose the Polka because it’s Czech music, which is close to Poland. 

Kati Winkler/Rene Lohse (GER), 2003 National Champions
Winkler:  It was very close. We were a bit unlucky, there was no German judge on the panel. The atmosphere was great, and we felt great out there. It’s always a big help to feel that the audience is behind us so much. It looks like we’re staying in the fifth place, and it was a goal for us to make the final warm up group.

Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov (RUS), 2003 National Champions
Navka: (On choosing a military march) In these times, and in the war there also were ballroom dances. We also wanted to do something different. So many have just a Polka.
Kostomarov: We’re happy with how we skated. There were just a few minor things that the general public probably doesn’t even see. Our coaches are very satisfied with the performance. When we chose the march, we were looking for a sharp contrast to our soft and flowing waltz.

Frederica Faiella/Massimo Scali (ITA), 2003 National Champions
Scali: Our goal is to be in the top ten and now we’re there. Everything can still happen, we don’t know yet (the final result). We’re a new couple so we hope that we also pull out a great performance in the Free Skating.


Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh (RUS), 2002 World Champions
Averbukh: I think we really progressed from our first competitions. We’re very happy with our marks. There were a lot of 5.9s. One 6.0 can come from our (Russian) judge maybe, but not all these 5.9s. The Waltz is a very good dance for Irina, and she took part in putting it together. 
Lobacheva: (On the choice of music) We were listening to many Waltzes, and I liked this one. Many people can associate something with it and feel it in their souls.

Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder (FRA), 2003 National Champions
Delobel: We didn’t skate our best. We can do better. Today, I woke up at five in the morning, and I was a bit tired. But that’s no excuse for not having skated the maximum. For us it’s good to have a bigger choice of rhythms, although we don’t like these rhythms (Waltz, Polka, March, Gallop) so much. We prefer other dances.

Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski (BUL), 2002 Bofrost Cup Champions
Denkova: We had to skate last, and that’s a bit hard. It’s a long wait after the warm up. Everyone else has already skated, and it puts some psychological pressure on us. But we’re very happy with the result. I even saw one first place ordinal, and I was very glad about that. The audience is very supportive, and it was nice to see so many Bulgarian flags.
Stavyiski: It was a good skate, everything was fine – the technique and the speed. We really focused on our presentation. We skated with confidence and we’re pleased with ourselves.