Cohen and Plushenko Dazzle in Figure Skating Final

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 02, 2003

Cohen and Plushenko Dazzle in Figure Skating Final

European men's champion and home favorite Yevgeny Plushenko skated an almost flawless free program on Saturday to win the grand prix final for the third time in the last four years.

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European men's champion and home favorite Yevgeny Plushenko skated an almost flawless free program on Saturday to win the grand prix final for the third time in the last four years.

But 18-year-old American Sasha Cohen upset world champion and last season's winner Irina Slutskaya to win the women's crown and denied the Russians a clean sweep of all four titles.

World and European champions Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh scored a convincing victory in ice dancing, while European gold medalists Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin beat Chinese world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao to win the pairs competition.

Cohen, competing in her first grand prix final, skated an inspired free program to the music of great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov, getting top marks from all seven judges.

She had a disappointing showing in Friday's long program, but promised to skate better on Saturday.

"You can't expect to win all the time, so I was just competing with myself and trying to do my best tonight," said Cohen. "Although I didn't skate my best I was hoping to finish first."

Slutskaya, 24, who was leading after Friday's events and skating last, crumbled under pressure, making several obvious errors in her program skated to Verdi's La Traviata.

But the Russian, who had won three of her seven finals, including last season's competition in Kitchener, Canada, vowed to come back strongly at the world championships later this month.

"It's only a loss. I had some personal problems in the last couple of days, so I didn't feel all that great today," said Slutskaya without going into detail.

"But it (the defeat) didn't affect my overall confidence and I'm sure I'll be at my best in Washington."

Another Russian Viktoria Volchkova finished third after stumbling on a triple loop.

BREATHTAKING JUMPS

Plushenko, skating in the absence of his compatriot and great rival, world and Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin, was head and shoulders above the rest of the six-man field, as he dazzled the home crowd with breathtaking jumps and beautiful choreography.

Plushenko opened up his program with a trademark quadruple-triple-triple combination, then nailed eight more triple jumps, scoring six perfect 6.0 marks from the judges for artistic impression.

"I only skated better in practice," said the smiling 20-year-old. "No seriously, I think this was one of my best performances ever. I think getting six perfect marks is a record for me. Now, the task for me to get perfect marks for technical merit as well."

Russia's former world junior champion Ilya Klimkin, held on to second place with a risky, but somewhat unpolished performance, while European silver medalist Brian Joubert of France moved into third, nudging another Russian, Alexander Abt, off the podium.

Yagudin, who won all major titles last season, including the grand prix final in Kitchener, Canada, where he beat Plushenko into second place, was forced to withdraw from all international competitions this season because of a painful hip injury.

LAST COMPETITION

Lobacheva and Averbukh, performing to rock-and-roll music, beat fellow Russians Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov into second place, with Bulgaria's European silver medalists Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski finishing third.

"This was our last competition on home ice, so we're really happy to finish on a high," said Averbukh, who confirmed the couple's decision to retire at the end of this season.

The husband-and-wife couple missed all last season's grand prix competitions after Lobacheva injured her knee in a practice accident in September 2001.

Totmianina and Marinin, who were leading the six-team field going into Saturday's free program and skating last to the music from the Cotton Club soundtrack, held their nerve as they executed difficult triple jumps and triple throws.

Only a small stumble by Marinin on a simple step sequence spoiled the otherwise flawless performance.

Shen and Zhao, however, had difficulty controlling their high speed as they skated to the music of Puccini's Turandot. The Chinese saw their chances of taking first place disappear after Shen crashed out on a side-by-side triple toe-loop.

Another Russian couple, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov held on to third place despite making a few small errors.

Russia's Olympic champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze are not competing this season, while Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who were awarded a duplicate Olympic gold medal following a judging scandal in Salt Lake City, have retired from amateur competition.

In the final, all skaters performed two free programs, one on Friday, which counted for 30 percent, and a different one on Saturday, worth 50 percent. A short program was worth 20 percent of the total score.

Source: agencies

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