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2000 World Figure Skating Championships March 26 - April 2, 2000 Nice, France Day 1 Summary

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The 2000 ISU World Figure Skating Championships began in Nice (FRA) Monday with 200 skaters participating from 45 countries.

Men

The Championships opened with the Men's Qualifying Rounds. Three time former world champion Elvis Stojko (CAN) was the unexpected winner of the first group, ahead of new European champion Evgeni Plushenko (RUS) and fellow Russian Alexander Abt. Stojko, winner of the Four Continents Championships in Osaka last month, landed two triple/triple combinations in a solid performance of his program set to the soundtrack from "The Mummy." It earned him two 5.8s for technical merit and another one for presentation.

Plushenko, last year's world silver medallist, drew to skate first in the group and clearly did not enjoy competing at 10.00 in the morning. He fell heavily on his opening quadruple toeloop and then doubled his axel. He steadied to produce four good triples (two in combination) and fast steps but doubled two attempts at the salchow at the end of his program. His marks for technical merit ranged from 5.4 to 5.5 with a high of three 5.7s for presentation.

Abt just touched down his free foot on his opening quadruple toeloop and two footed his triple axel/triple toeloop combination but then produced a fine performance with six more triples to earn two 5.7s for technical meritand one 5.8 for presentation. The judges were divided but Stojko won the group with first places from four of the seven judges. Plushenko took second by virtue of a majority of higher placed ordinals, despite two first places for Abt.

"It's good we had this run through today," said Stojko. "I had lots of energy." Plushenko's coach Alexei Mishin said: "It was very difficult for Evgeni to skate so early in the morning. He said that it was hard for him.

Defending champion Alexei Yagudin (RUS) was the winner of the second Qualifying Group, ahead of the 1999 bronze medallist Michael Weiss and Four Continents silver medallist Chengjiang Li (CHN). Skating to his new Tosca program, created in the six weeks since his loss to Plushenko at the European Championships, Yagudin popped his opening quadruple toeloop but then immediately recovered to land his second attempt at the quad cleanly. He then reeled off seven triples to earn one 5.9 and five 5.8s for technical merit and two 5.9s and four 5.8s for presentation. "We decided to change the program right after the Europeans," said Yagudin. "It was a hard decision because we didn't have much time to change it."

Weiss produced his best performance of the season so far of his Carmen program. He included two triple/triple combinations in a stylish display and was rewarded with three 5.9s and two 5.8s for presentation. "It was a good program," said Weiss. "It's a good start. I expect to land the quad in the Short and the Free." Li has reverted to last year's Riverdance program since the Four Continents three weeks ago and included a clean quadruple toeloop/double toeloop combination to receive a total of three 5.8s. "I am not fully satisfied with my program," said Li. "I chose the same program as last year because I like it!" In the final results, Yagudin received first places from six of the seven judges to take the Group.

There were three other clean quads during the day's competition: Anthony Liu (AUS) landed a clean quadruple toeloop/double toeloop combination, Zhengxin Guo (CHN) a clean quadruple toeloop and Timothy Goebel (USA) landed a quadruple salchow/triple toeloop combination to bring the total number of clean quadruple jumps in the Qualifying Rounds to five.

Pairs

New world champions will be crowned in the Pairs competition following the withdrawal of reigning champions Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze (RUS) after it was announced on Monday that Berezhnaya had tested positive for a prohibited substance. 1999 world silver medallists Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (CHN) took the lead after the Short Program in an exciting Pair's competition. They performed a clean program to "The Firebird" with their trademark spectacularly high double twist and a huge throw triple loop. Their marks included two 5.9s and seven 5.8s for required elements and seven more 5.8s for presentation. "This was a very good performance," said Zhao. "It was one of the best short programs we've ever skated."

European silver medallists Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov (RUS) placed second. Their Tchaikovsky program featured excellent spins and strong skating, with high quality side by side triple toeloops. They earned one 5.9 for required elements and two more for presentation. "We did well," said Tikhonov. "Of course there was pressure because these are the World Championships."

Four Continents champions Jamie Sale & David Pelletier (CAN) placed third in their debut together at the World Championships. They opened their program with a beautiful throw triple loop followed by side by side triple toeloops. Their only error came when Sale missed the entry into the side by side spin but they recovered immediately to finish strongly with their unique entry into the required death spiral. Their Tango program was awarded one 5.9 for presentation and a total of seven 5.8s. "We were a bit nervous because it's our first Worlds together," said Sale. "I think we handled ourselves really well, besides the spin"

The judges were divided but the Canadians got the majority of higher placements, over the French champions Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis, to take third place.

The Championships continue tomorrow (Tuesday) with the Compulsory Dances and the Men's Short Program.

Men

Qualifying Free Skating Group B

Pl. Name 			Nation 		Pts.

1 Elvis STOJKO 			CAN 		0,4
2 Evgeni PLUSHENKO 		RUS 		0,8
3 Alexander ABT			RUS 		1,2
4 Zhengxin GUO 			CHN 		1,6
5 Stanick JEANNETTE 		FRA 		2,0
6 Vitali DANILCHENKO 		UKR 		2,4
7 Anthony LIU 			AUS 		2,8
8 Timothy GOEBEL 		USA 		3,2
9 Ivan DINEV 			BUL 		3,6
10 Roman SKORNIAKOV 		UZB 		4,0
11 Ben FERREIRA 		CAN 		4,4
12 Konstantin KOSTIN 		LAT 		4,8
13 Sergei RYLOV 		AZE 		5,2
14 Yamato TAMURA 		JPN 		5,6
15 Matthew DAVIES 		GBR 		6,0
16 Robert GRZEGORCZYK 		POL 		6,4
17 Kyu-Hyun LEE 		KOR 		6,8
18 Michael SHMERKIN 		ISR 		7,2
19 Bradley SANTER 		AUS 		7,6
20 Jan CEJVAN 			SLO 		8,0
21 Lukas RAKOWSKI 		CZE 		8,4
22 Margus HERNITS 		EST 		8,8
23 Filip STILLER 		SWE 		9,2
24 Ricardo OLAVARRIETA 		MEX 		9,6
 

Qualifying Group A

Pl. Name 			Nation 		Pts.

1 Alexei YAGUDIN 		RUS 		0,4
2 Michael WEISS 		USA 		0,8
3 Chengjiang LI 		CHN 		1,2
4 Stefan LINDEMANN 		GER 		1,6
5 Takeshi HONDA 		JPN 		2,0
6 Andrejs VLASCENKO 		GER 		2,4
7 Vincent RESTENCOURT 		FRA 		2,8
8 Dmitri DMITRENKO 		UKR 		3,2
9 Patrick MEIER 		SUI 		3,6
10 Michael TYLLESEN 		DEN 		4,0
11 Szabolcs VIDRAI 		HUN 		4,4
12 Markus LEMINEN 		FIN 		4,8
13 Vakhtang MURVANIDZE 		GEO 		5,2
14 Cornel GHEORGHE 		ROM 		5,6
15 Yuri LITVINOV 		KAZ 		6,0
16 Kevin van der PERREN 	BEL 		6,4
17 Robert KAZIMIR 		SVK 		6,8
18 Patrick SCHMIT		LUX 		7,2
19 Angelo DOLFINI 		ITA 		7,6
20 Ricky COCKERILL 		NZL 		8,0
21 Clemens JONAS 		AUT 		8,4
22 Jordi PEDRO 			ESP 		8,8
23 Panagiotis MARKOUIZOS 	GRE 		9,2
 

Pairs

Short Program

Fi Name 					Nation 		TFP 	SP FS

1 Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO 			CHN 		0,5 	1
2 Maria PETROVA / Alexei TIKHONOV 		RUS 		1,0 	2
3 Jamie SALE / David PELLETIER 			CAN 		1,5 	3
4 Sarah ABITBOL / Stephane BERNADIS 		FRA 		2,0 	4
5 Peggy SCHWARZ / Mirko MÜLLER 			GER 		2,5 	5
6 Kyoko INA / John ZIMMERMAN 			USA 		3,0 	6
7 Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK 		POL 		3,5 	7
8 Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ 		RUS		4,0 	8
9 Tiffany SCOTT / Phillip DULEBOHN 		USA 		4,5 	9
10 Julia OBERTAS / Dmitri PALAMARCHUK 		UKR 		5,0 	10
11 Kristy SARGEANT / Kris WIRTZ 		CAN 		5,5 	11
12 Mariana KAUTZ / Norman JESCHKE 		GER 		6,0 	12
13 Katerina BERANKOVA / Otto DLABOLA 		CZE 		6,5 	13
14 Inga RODIONOVA / Andrei KRUKOV 		AZE 		7,0 	14
15 Qing PANG / Jian TONG 			CHN 		7,5 	15
16 Marina KHALTURINA / Valeri ARTYUCHOV 	KAZ 		8,0 	16
17 Viktoria SHKLOVER / Valdis MINTALS 		EST 		8,5 	17
18 Evgenia FILONENKO / Alexander CHESTNIKH 	GEO 		9,0 	18
19 Olga BESTANDIGOVA / Josef BESTANDIG 		SVK 		9,5 	19
20 Ekaterina DANKO / Gennadi EMELIENENKO 	BLR 		10,0 	20
21 Catherine HUC / Vivien ROLLAND 		FRA 		10,5 	21
22 Tatjana ZAHARJEVA / Jurijs SALMANOVS 	LAT 		11,0 	22


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