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| | Monday, February 14 | ||||||
VIENNA, Austria -- France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat ended Russia's three-year gold run at the European Figure Skating Championships, winning the ice dance title Friday.
Russians were left off the podium completely, the first time since 1968 they had failed to medal in ice dancing.
Italy's Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio took silver and Lithuania's Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas the bronze.
Improving on last year's silver, Anissina and Peizerat delivered a powerful performance to "Carmina Burana," convincing all nine judges to mark them first, for their first major international title. "I never felt as stressed out as I did today," Anissina said. "We were tense. We wanted to win so much." The French duo, capitalizing on the absence of defending champions Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov, earned two 6.0s and seven 5.9s for artistry. They got 5.9s and 5.8s for technical merit.After winning every gold medal available at the Europeans the past three years, Russia wound up fourth, on a valiant effort from Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh, Anissina's ex-partner in the former Soviet Union. Still, the Russians can claim to have had a hand in the victory, with Anissina originating from Moscow and only competing under French colors since 1993 when she teamed with Peizerat. The last time Russia failed to win a gold at the Europeans was in 1996 when Ukraine's Viacheslav Zagorodniuk claimed the men's singles title. The women's is the only title left, and with a win, Slutskaya could give Russia its third gold of the championships, the nation's skaters already having won the men's and the pairs' titles.Displaying the same form which helped her beat Michelle Kwan in the Grand Prix final last month, Slutskaya delivered a solid, emotional routine. Dressed in a long, flowing blue dress, Slutskaya's serene, feminine effort disguised a steely inner strength. She nailed every jump confidently to put her in first entering Saturday's long program. As elegant and impassioned as she was solid, Slutskaya's artistic marks included four 5.9s. Her only real challenge in the short program came from compatriot Viktoria Volchkova, who delivered an error-free routine but lacked Slutskaya's grace and polish. In third overall, but virtually out of contention for gold, was two-time defending champion Butyrskaya, who made two major mistakes in her program. In her only combination jump, the Russian badly landed the triple lutz and was unable to get airborne for the double toe loop. Shaken, Butyrskaya later botched her double axel to finish fourth in the short program. For technical merit, she received marks as low as 4.8, with one judge estimating she deserved to finish only sixth. Only her artistic marks prevented her from dropping below fourth. For Butyrskaya to win, she needs to win the long program and have Slutskaya rank third or worse - which is unlikely considering the way Slutskaya has skated this week. | ALSO SEE Butyrskaya drops to third French team leads, Berezhnaya overcomes  | ||||||
