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International Skating Union Figure Skating Results Cup of Russia Moscow, Russia Nov. 26 - 29, 1998 Fifth Event of the Grand Prix Series |
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International Skating Union Figure Skating Results Cup of Russia Moscow, Russia Nov. 26 - 29, 1998 Fifth Event of the Grand Prix Series |
The fifth event in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, the Cup of Russia, concluded in Moscow, Russia on Saturday (results and standings attached).
In a fascinating domestic battle, Alexei Urmanov (RUS) took the lead in the men's short program. Urmanov was faultless, landing a triple axel-triple toeloop combination and a triple lutz in his classical program set to Bach. The 1994 Olympic champion earned one 5.9 for required elements and eight more for presentation. Second was training partner and world bronze medallist Evgeny Plushenko. He opened with an attempt at a quadruple toeloop but just two-footed the landing and then could only manage a double toeloop in combination with his triple axel. The third Russian, Alexander Abt (struggling with an ankle injury), stumbled after his unusual triple axel/triple loop combination and his planned quadruple toeloop ended up as a triple to put him in third place.
In the free, Plushenko was the first to skate. Again, it was not to be a quad - instead a triple toeloop - but he then reeled off seven more triples, including a triple axel/double toeloop combination. He stuttered between a triple lutz and triple toeloop but included lightning fast step sequences and excellent spins to earn two 5.8s for technique and one 5.9 and four 5.8s for presentation. Abt followed but his injury clearly hampered him. He fell on a triple flip and stumbled slightly on the landings of two other jumps in his Egyptian program to stay in third.
Urmanov knew what he had to do. He opened with a huge triple flip/triple toeloop that nearly took him into the boards but fell at the end of a triple axel/triple toeloop combination. Four more triples followed and two superb unusual combination spins in his elegant tango routine. The judges split 6 to 3 in favour of Urmanov, whose stronger presentation marks (including four 5.9s) just gave him the edge over Plushenko, who has yet to beat him.
It was Urmanov's first win in his comeback season after the serious groin injury that forced him to pull out of the 1997 World Championships when leading after the short program. He then missed the entire 1997/98 season. Urmanov and Abt now qualify for the Grand Prix Final along with Alexei Yagudin (RUS) and Michael Weiss (USA). It was a non-points scoring event for Plushenko who skates in Japan.
It was also a Russian sweep in the ladies' event. Elena Sokolova, winner in Gelsenkirchen, took the lead with a clean short program that included a triple lutz/double toeloop combination and a triple loop. World silver medallist Irina Slutskaya just two-footed her triple lutz/double toeloop combination but landed a triple loop and performed her trademark double Biellmann spin combination to take second. Julia Soldatova, training partner of world bronze medallist Maria Butyrskaya, got the majority of the judges' votes to place third ahead of Laetitia Hubert (FRA) in a split decision.
In the free, the judges faced a hard challenge to separate the top three. Soldatova put a hand down on her opening triple salchow but then landed five clean triples, including two in combination, in a technically challenging program. Sokolova followed and also landed two triples in combination but could only manage one other clean triple. Her program featured fast step sequences and good spins. Slutskaya started by two-footing her triple lutz and putting a hand down on a triple salchow but then improved as her program went on, landing four clean triples (again including two combinations) and showing fast spins and footwork.
The judges were divided with each of the three skaters receiving first places but the majority verdict went to Sokolova followed by Soldatova and Slutskaya. That means Sokolova (like Butyrskaya) qualifies for the Grand Prix Final with the maximum 24 points. It was a non-points scoring event for Slutskaya who must secure her place in the Final at the NHK Trophy next week.
As expected, world champions and Olympic silver medallists Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze (RUS) won the pairs competition - but it was far closer than predicted. They won the short with a program that included side by side triple toeloops and a spectacular thrown triple loop to earn a total of nine 5.8s. Dorota Zagorska & Mariusz Siudek (POL) placed a surprise second ahead of the rapidly improving new pairing of Kyoko Ina & John Zimmerman (USA). Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (CHN), winners in Canada, finished fifth after a major error during the required overhead lift.
The free program saw Shen & Zhao make up for that error with a high quality display that included side by side triple toeloops and double axels, a triple twist and two high thrown jumps. Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze made uncharacteristic errors but the overall speed and strength of their skating and their intricate choreography gave them the edge over the Chinese in a 6:3 majority verdict from the judges. Ina & Zimmerman, together only five months, moved up another level from Paris last week. They too featured a triple twist, complex lifts, side by side triple toeloops and double axels - but just one thrown jump. They lost second place to the Chinese by a 6:3 majority verdict to stay in third.
The final results saw Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze take the title qualify for the Final with the maximum 24 points. Shen & Zhao (9 points) skate in Japan next week and Ina & Zimmerman, currently in third place on 16 points, must wait to see if that will take them to the Final.
Tatiana Navka and her new partner Roman Kostomarov made it a third Russian sweep when their dramatic and intricate free dance, set to Ravel's Bolero, moved them up to third ahead of Silwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski (POL). Like the first two Russian couples, their programs are choreographed by Natalia Linichuk.
Krylova & Ovsiannikov now qualify for the Final with the maximum 24 points. Lobacheva & Averbukh, on 18 points, also have booked their place in St Petersburg. Already qualified are Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz (CAN).
NPS= non points scoring event
LADIES Factored Grand Prix
PLC SP FP Placing Points
1. 1 1 Elena Sokolova RUS 1.5 12
2. 3 2 Julia Soldatova RUS 3.5 9
3. 2 3 Irina Slutskaya RUS 4.0 NPS
4. 5 4 Yuka Kanazawa JPN 6.5 5
5. 4 5 Laetitia Hubert FRA 7.0 NPS
6. 6 6 Anna Rechnio POL 9.0 3
7. 11 7 Veronika Dytrtova CZE 12.5 2
8. 9 8 Amber Corwin USA 12.5 1
9. 8 9 Angela Derochie CAN 13.0 -
10. 7 11 Yulia Lavrenchuk UKR 14.5 -
11. 12 10 Silvia Fontana ITA 16.0 -
12. 10 12 Franziska Guenther GER 18.0 -
MEN
1. 1 1 Alexei Urmanov RUS 1.5 12
2. 2 2 Evgeny Plushenko RUS 3.0 NPS
3. 3 3 Alexander Abt RUS 4.5 7
4. 5 4 Ivan Dinev BUL 6.5 5
5. 4 6 Szabolcs Vidrai HUN 8.0 4
6. 8 5 Evgeny Pliuta UKR 9.0 3
7. 11 7 Selichi Suzuki JPN 12.5 2
8. 6 10 Jeff Langdon CAN 13.0 1
9. 12 8 Michael Tyllesen DEN 14.0 -
10. 10 9 Markus Leminen FIN 14.0 -
11. 9 11 Frederic Dombier FRA 15.5 -
12. 9 11 Timothy Goebel USA 15.5 -
PAIRS
1. 1 1 Elena Berezhnaya/Anton Sikharulidze RUS 1.5 12
2. 5 2 Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao CHN 4.5 9
3. 3 3 Kyoko Ina/John Zimmerman USA 4.5 7
4. 2 4 Dorota Zagorska/Mauriuz Siudek POL 5.0 5
5. 4 5 Marina Eltsova/Andrei Bushkov RUS 7.0 4
6. 6 6 Tatiana Totmianina/Maksim Marinin RUS 9.0 3
7. 7 7 Nadia Micalleff/Bruno Marcotte CAN 10.5 -
8. 8 8 Heather Allebach/Matthew Evers USA 12.0 -
DANCE
PLC CD OD FD
1. 1 1 1 Anjelika Krylova & Oleg Ovsiannikov RUS 2.0 12
2. 2 2 2 Irina Lobacheva & Ilia Averbukh RUS 4.0 9
3. 4 4 3 Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov RUS 7.0 7
4. 3 3 4 Silwia Nowak/Sebastian Kolasinski POL 7.0 5
5. 5 5 5 Naomi Lang/Peter Tchernyshev USA 10.0 4
6. 6 6 6 Chantal Lefebvre/Michel Brunet CAN 12.0 3
7. 7 7 7 Dominique Deniaud/Martial Jaffredo FRA 14.0 2
8. 8 8 8 Stephanie Rauer/Thomas Rauer GER 16.0 1
9. 10 9 9 Angelika Fuhring/Bruno Ellinger AUT 18.4 -
10. 9 10 10 Kornelia Barany/Andras Rosnik HUN 19.6 -
LADIES (top six qualify for Final) No. of events
1. Elena Sokolova RUS 24 pts
2. Maria Butyrskaya RUS 24 2
3. Nicole Bobek USA 14 2
4. Elena Liashenko UKR 12 1
5. Fumie Suguri JPN 9 1
6. Julia Soldatova RUS 9 1
7. Yulia Lavrenchuk UKR 9 2
8. Laetitia Hubert FRA 9 2
9. Anna Rechnio POL 8 2
10. Angela Nikodinov USA 7 1
11. Irina Slutskaya RUS 7 1
12. Vanessa Gusmeroli FRA 7 1
13. Yuka Kanazawa JPN 5 1
14. Jennifer Robinson CAN 5 2
15. Amber Corwin USA 5 2
16. Brittney McConn USA 5 2
17. Diana Poth HUN 5 2
18. Tatijana Malinina UZB 4 1
19. Alisa Drei FIN 3 1
20. Hanae Yokoya JPN 2 1
21. Mojca Kopac SLO 2 1
22. Veronika Dytrtova CZE 2 1
23. Yulia Vorobieva AZE 1 1
24. Andrea Diewald GER 1 1
25. Eva-Maria Fitze GER 1 1
MEN (top six qualify for Final)
1. Alexei Yagudin RUS 24 2
2. Alexei Urmanov RUS 19 2
3. Michael Weiss USA 18 2
4. Alexander Abt RUS 16 2
5. Elvis Stojko CAN 14 2
6. Evgeny Plushenko RUS 12 1
7. Szabolcs Vidrai HUN 11 2
8. Ivan Dinev BUL 10 2
9. Andrejs Vlascenko GER 7 1
10. Emmanuel Sandhu CAN 7 1
11. Laurent Tobel FRA 7 2
12. Dmitry Dmitrenko UKR 5 1
13. Naoki Shigematsu JPN 5 1
14. Takeshi Honda JPN 4 1
15. Derrick Delmore USA 4 1
16. Thierry Cerez FRA 4 2
17. Evgeny Pliuta UKR 3 1
18. Jean-Francois Hebert CAN 3 2
19. Sven Meyer GER 3 2
20. Jason Denommee CAN 2 1
21. Seiichi Suzuki JPN 2 1
22. Michael Hopfes GER 2 2
23. Roman Skorniakov UZB 2 1
24= Yamato Tamura JPN 1 1
24= Robert Grzegorczyk POL 1 1
26. Jeff Langdon CAN 1 2
PAIRS (top five qualify for Final)
1. Elena Berezhnaya/Anton Sikharulidze RUS 24 2
2. Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov RUS 21 2
3. Kyoko Ina/John Zimmerman USA 16 2
4. Sarah Abitbol/Stephane Bernadis FRA 15 2
5. Kristy Sargeant/Kris Wirtz CAN 14 2
6. Marina Eltsova/Andrei Bushkov RUS 11 2
7. Peggy Schwarz/Mirko Mueller GER 9 1
8. Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao CHN 9 1
9. Katerina Berankova/Otto Dlabola CZE 8 2
10. Jamie Sale/David Pelletier CAN 7 1
11. Victoria Maxiuta/Vladislav Zhovnirsky RUS 7 1
12. Tiffany Stiegler/Johnnie Stiegler USA 7 2
13= Valerie Saurette/J-S Fecteau CAN 7 2
13= Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin RUS 7 2
15. Dorota Zagorska/Mariusz Siudek POL 5 1
16. Danielle Hartsell/Steve Hartsell USA 5 1
17. M-C Savard-Gagnon/Luc Bradet CAN 4 1
18. Mariana Kautz/Norman Jeschke GER 3 1
DANCE (top five qualify for Final)
1. Anjelika Krylova/Oleg Ovsiannikov RUS 24 2
2. Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz CAN 21 2
3. Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh RUS 18 2
4= Barbara Fusar-Poli/Maurizio Margaglio ITA 16 2
4= Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas LTU 16 2
6. Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat FRA 12 1
7. Sylwia Nowak/Sebastian Kolasinski POL 12 2
8. Elena Grushina/Ruslan Goncharov UKR 10 2
9. Anna Semenovich/Vladimir Fedorov RUS 10 2
10. Galit Chait/Sergey Sakhnovsky ISR 8 2
11. Naomi Lang/Peter Tchernyshev USA 8 2
12. Kati Winkler/Rene Lohse GER 7 1
13. Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov RUS 7 1
14. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviyski BUL 7 2
15. Chantal Lefebvre/Michel Brunet CAN 6 2
16. Olga Sharutenko/Dmitri Naumkin RUS 5 2
17. Marie-France Dubreuil/Patrice Lauzon CAN 4 2
18. Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder FRA 4 2
19. Eve Chalom/Mathew Gates USA 2 1
20. Dominique Deniaud/Martial Jaffredo FRA 2 2
21. Eliane Hugentobler/Daniel Hugentobler SUI 1 1
22. Angelika Fuehring/Bruno Ellinger AUT 1 2
23. Stephanie Rauer/Thomas Rauer GER 1 2
23. Debbie Koegei/Oleg Fediukov USA 1 1
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