2003 ISU Grand Prix Final

28 Feburary

Ice Dancing, Original Dance

Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski (BUL), 2003 European silver medalists
Denkova: It was well done, and I think we’ll be more relaxed for the second dance today.

Staviski: We skated first, so it was a bit difficult. On the other hand, we just tell ourselves that it’s the OD that we’ve skated many times before, and we tell ourselves that this is a competition like all the others.

Marie-F. Dubreuil/Patrice Lauzon (CAN), 2003 National silver medalists
Dubreuil: I have problems with my hip since November, since Gelsenkirchen, the Germany Grand Prix. We had a little hit with the Bulgarian couple (in practice). My hip moved in the wrong way and it’s hard to cure. I would have to take a long break but there is no time so far. Actually when I perform it’s not so bad it’s more during the training. It was fun to skate our program and the crowd really responded to it. So we really had a good time.

Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov (UKR), 2003 National Champions
Goncharov: We’re pleased with this performance and with how the audience received us. We’re competing in our first Final. There are less competitors than usual, and the whole event feels relaxed. We like this competition.

Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov (RUS), 2003 European bronze medalists
Kostomarov: We’re already thinking of the Free Dance this evening. The Final is new to us, and we don’t really understand yet how it works! It’s an endless day today. It started early this morning with practice, and it won’t finish until late tonight.

Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (ISR), 2002 World bronze medalists
Chait: We didn’t have our skates (luggage was lost on the flight). We found out 6.30 in the morning on Friday, that the German team (Winkler/Lohse) is not coming. We had to go and find a tape of our old program and remember the steps again. We’re just happy to be here and happy our skates got here. We skated well. I wished we had a little bit more practice time, but it’s o.k. It’s always an adventure.

Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh (RUS), 2002 World Champions
Averbukh: It was very hard to go out and skate today. This is a very difficult competition, almost a torture. Preparing the second Free Dance is affecting our preparation for Worlds. We only had one week to prepare for this event, as Irina has been sick with the flu.