| | LYON, France--Michelle Kwan, skating with grace and precision, went
into the lead of the International Skating Union Grand Prix Final on Friday
with a narrow victory over surprising Irina Slutskaya of Russia.
Current world champion Maria Butyrskaya struggled a bit and came in
third as each skater performed a long program.
In the other events Friday, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo led a close pairs
contest while France's hometown ice dancers, Marina Anissina and Gwendal
Peizerat, were in front of their event.
Evgeny Plushchenko took the men's lead event, completing a quad and six
triples. The men's event lost some of its luster when two-time world and
European champion Alexei Yagudin withdrew due to boot and foot
problems.
That made the women's event the highlight of this competition with the present world champion Butyrskaya pitted against past world champion and Olympic silver medalist Kwan.
Last March, Butyrskaya beat Kwan, who was ailing, for the world title.
On Friday, Kwan did six triple jumps and scaled down just one to a soft routine skated to the "Red Violin" soundtrack, the music for her competition program from this season. On Saturday, she intends to use last year's program.
"I wanted to feel comfortable with this program and worry about the rest later on," Kwan said.
On Saturday, the skaters come back with the short program to determine the placings. A few hours later, the top four skaters will go against each other in a super final, executing a second different long program.
Aside from landing jumps with precision, Kwan kept the audience nearly spellbound with some interpretive moves, especially back spirals and spins. She concluded her performance with a triple toe loop just seconds from the end.
Kwan earned marks mostly in the 5.8 and 5.9 range with only a 5.6 and 5.7 spoiling the scores.
"We wanted to take our time and felt really solid on each jump," Kwan said. "I didn't rush through the program."
She needed the high marks as Slutskaya followed her on the ice and was as perfect as Kwan with six triple jumps, not backing off at all in her routine to "Carmen." She was barely a tenth behind Kwan in every mark.
Slutskaya nearly quit skating last year when she failed to make the Russian team after being second in the world in 1998. But she came back to take the Russian title over Butyrskaya.
Butyrskaya had five triples but fell once and had bad landings on two others.
In fourth was Julia Soldatova, who was third in the world last year but fourth in the recent Russian nationals, followed by Elena Liashenko of Ukraine in fifth and Victoria Volchkova of Russia in sixth.
Plushchenko had an easy time in the men's event, scoring marks of 5.8 and 5.9 to his last year's routine of techno-music.
Elvis Stojko, a former three-time men's world champion, was second with Russian Alexander Abt, Yagudin's replacement, in third.
American Tim Goebel completed a quad salchow-triple toe loop combination but fell on two other quad attempts and came in fourth.
The pairs event was extremely close with first-place votes spread among three couples. The Chinese pair won with an athletic performance. The French pair of Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis came in second,
needing a rerun.
Abitbol fell heavily in attempting a throw triple axel move. She chipped a tooth on the fall and had to stop. They came back later to skate again and received two first-place votes.
Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier came in fourth despite an emotional routine to "Love Story" that gained them first-place votes from the United States and Canadian judges.
Russian world champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were only fifth having four mistakes.
Anissina and Peizerat, skating in their hometown, took the lead in the ice dance, getting marks of 5.8 and 5.9 with one 6.0 to "The Man in the Iron Mask."
The final brings together the top point scorers in the four events from a six-meet series between October and December last year.
Winners of each event get $50,000 with a $10,000 bonus. | |
ALSO SEE
ISU Grand Prix Final long program results
Kwan and Butyrskaya meet again
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