| | VIENNA, Austria -- Irina Slutskaya regained the women's
title Saturday at the European Figure Skating Championships by beating
defending champion Maria Butyrskaya in the long program.
Slutskaya and Butyrskaya each hit six triple jumps in their
programs. Slutskaya, skating to "Carmen," did not include any of
the triple-triple combinations that helped her beat Michelle Kwan
at the Grand Prix final last month.
| |  | | | Irina Slutskaya regains the gold at the European Championships. |
"It was important to skate cleanly without mistakes and to land
all the triples," Slutskaya said. "I originally planned to do the
triple-triple but I reconsidered."
However, she did more than enough to win her third European
title, her first since 1997. She did not make the Russian team last
year and nearly quit skating, then returned with a new motivation.
All her marks were 5.8s and 5.9s, and she was a unanimous choice
of the nine judges for first.
Butyrskaya rebounded after a disappointing short program to come
in second. Skating to "Swan Lake," she included a
triple-step-triple combination. Her only slight mistake was when
she doubled an intended triple lutz.
"It wasn't difficult for me to go out and skate today because I
had nothing to lose," Butyrskaya said. "I decided to risk the
second triple lutz but unfortunately it didn't work this time."
Victoria Volchkova finished third, completing a Russian sweep of
the women's medals for the second consecutive year, although
France's Vanessa Gusmeroli did better than her in the free-skating
portion. The French skater completed six triples but was not able
to overtake Volchkova after Gusmeroli's fourth in qualifying.
The three medals increased Russia's medal count to seven,
although for the first time in four years Russia failed to win all
the gold medals.
France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won the ice dance
on Friday to stop the Russian streak. There was not a Russian
couple in the top three - the first time since 1968 that has
happened in that event, although Anissina, and Margarita Drobiazko,
who competed for Lithuania with Povilas Vanagas and finished third,
are Russian born.
The Russians were 1-2 in the other two events. Yevgeny
Plushchenko upset two-time defending and world champion Alexei
Yagudin to capture the men's event, although Yagudin was hampered
by a broken bone in his hand.
Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze put their personal
problems aside and took the pairs competition, moving up from
second to beat the defenders, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov.
Next year's Europeans will be in Bratislava, Slovakia. | |
ALSO SEE
European figure skating results
Plushenko dethrones Yagudin
French ice dancers win gold
Berezhnaya, Sikharulidze capture European pairs title
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