| 2002 European Figure Skating Championships: Day Four |
The 2002 ISU European Figure Skating Championships continued in Lausanne with the Original Dance and the conclusion of the Men's competition.
Ice Dance, Original Dance
The Ice Dance competition continued with the Original Dance. Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat of France won this part of the competition and moved ahead of Barbara Fusar Poli/ Maurizio Margaglio (ITA). The two couples were tied in first place in the Compulsory Dances. Russia's Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh remained in third place.
Anissina/Peizerat put out a sizzling Flamenco and an elegant Tango that featured intricate footwork and captured the character of the dances perfectly. Their marks ranged from 5.7 to 5.9 for composition and from 5.7 to one 6.0 for presentation. "We felt great in our OD today", a happy Anissina told the press. "Everyone knows that we have the best OD, but we have to skate it well. That's exactly what we did today, we skated it with our heart. We are much better prepared this year than last year at this time."
Fusar Poli/ Margaglio have made some changes in their routine since the Grand Prix Final. The current World and defending European Champions displayed impressive speed and power in their dance to the rhythms of the Paso Doble and Flamenco. They too produced a very characteristic Dance for which they earned marks up to 5.8 for composition and up to 5.9 for presentation. The French couple had seven out of nine first place ordinals, while the Italians picked up two. "We changed the music in the first part of the dance, in order to express the character in a stronger and better way. This is a music that is easier to understand and to feel for the audience", Margaglio commented. "We stay calm and we'll see what happens tomorrow."
Lobacheva/Averbukh excited the crowd with a passionate Tango and Flamenco that featured difficult footwork and an original rotational lift. The husband and wife team received marks up to 5.7 for composition and up to 5.8 for presentation. They stayed ahead of Lithuanian's Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas on a three to four split on the panel of Judges.
Men, Free Program
The Men's event concluded tonight with the Free Program. In a close final, Russia's Alexei Yagudin prevailed over a tough challenge by teammate Alexander Abt (who was European bronze medallist in 1998), to capture his third European title. So Abt picked up a silver medal, while newcomer Brian Joubert of France clinched the bronze at his first European Championship.
Yagudin was first to skate of the three leading skaters. The three-time World Champion had to overcome a shaky start when he stepped out of his opening quadruple toeloop, but he rallied back to nail the quadruple toeloop at the next attempt. The Russian also completed a triple Axel-half loop-triple Salchow combination, a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination, two more triples and fast footwork in his emotional "Man in the Iron Mask" routine. However, he doubled the loop twice. The technical marks ranged from 5.7 to 5.8, while the presentation marks were all 5.8s and 5.9s.
Next up was Joubert. Today, the 17-year-old seemed a little nervous, as he stumbled on his quadruple toeloop at the opening of his program. The Frenchman recovered quickly to pull off five triples, but some of his landings were wobbly and he fell on the final jump, a triple Salchow. "I felt stressed out today, it was physically hard to skate", Joubert commented. "I was stiff on my legs. I don't know what happened on the triple Salchow. On the quad, I didn't have my shoulders right." Joubert was ranked sixth in the Free Skating but managed to hold on to the bronze medal, as the standings above and below him shuffled.
Abt went out to skate with starting number 23. The Russian appeared serene and calm, although the audience just had gone wild over the performance of the Swiss skater, Stephane Lambiel. Abt reeled off a quad-triple toeloop combination, a triple Axel-triple toeloop, triple Lutz and five more triples in his flowing program to Rachmaninov's third Piano Concert. The crowd gave the skater a standing ovation. Abt received marks as high as 5.9 for both technical merit and presentation, but he lost the gold medal on a split of six to three Judges in favor of Yagudin. "At the end of the program, I just was glad that I skated well", Abt smiled. "I'm not upset about not winning tonight. The crowd was very loud for Stephane Lambiel, but that didn't bother me. On the contrary, it set me up for a good skate."
Yagudin felt that he had improved his performance since the last competition. "I skated faster and better than at the Grand Prix Final", he explained. "I was not nervous but I lost my concentration on the first quadruple toeloop, maybe I thought it would take less energy. The second one was good. Still, I think the rest of my performance was good enough."
To the delight of the home crowd, Lambiel finished fourth with an inspiring performance to a music selection from "Cirque du Soleil". The 16-year-old who trains in nearby Geneva had the performance of his life and landed all of his jumps, including a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination. "This competition was almost perfect for me, I did three very strong programs", Lambiel said. "I cannot believe it! I never did so well in practice!"
Results Ice Dance FPl. Name Nat. Points C1 C2 OD FD 1 Marina ANISSINA / Gwendal PEIZERAT FRA 1.2 1 2 1 2 Barbara FUSAR POLI / Maurizio MARGAGLIO ITA 1.8 2 1 2 3 Irina LOBACHEVA / Ilia AVERBUKH RUS 3.0 3 3 3 4 Margarita DROBIAZKO / Povilas VANAGAS LTU 4.0 4 4 4 5 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 5.0 5 5 5 6 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVIYSKI BUL 6.0 6 6 6 7 Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV RUS 7.0 7 7 7 8 Elena GRUSHINA / Ruslan GONCHAROV UKR 8.0 8 8 8 9 Eliane HUGENTOBLER / Daniel HUGENTOBLER SUI 9.2 10 9 9 10 Sylwia NOWAK / Sebastian KOLASINSKI POL 9.8 9 10 10 11 Natalia ROMANIUTA / Daniil BARANTSEV RUS 11.2 12 11 11 12 Marika HUMPHREYS / Vitali BARANOV GBR 11.8 11 12 12 13 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 13.6 14 15 13 14 Alia OUABDELSSELAM / Benjamin DELMAS FRA 13.6 13 13 14 15 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 14.8 15 14 15 16 Natalia GUDINA / Alexei BELETSKI ISR 16.2 16 17 16 17 Veronika MORAVKOVA / Jiri PROCHAZKA CZE 17.0 18 16 17 18 Stephanie RAUER / Thomas RAUER GER 17.8 17 18 18 19 Jill VERNEKOHL / Dmitri KURAKIN GER 19.6 19 19 20 20 Julia GOLOVINA / Oleg VOIKO UKR 19.8 22 20 19 21 Roxane PETETIN / Mathieu JOST FRA 20.8 20 21 21 22 Zita GEBORA / Andras VISONTAI HUN 21.8 21 22 22 23 Jessica HUOT / Juha VALKAMA FIN 23.0 23 23 23 24 Anna MOSENKOVA / Sergei SYCHOV EST 24.0 24 24 24 25 Tatiana SINIAVER / Tornike TUKVADZE GEO 25 25 25 Men FPl. Name Nat. Points QA QB SP FS 1 Alexei YAGUDIN RUS 2.0 1 1 1 2 Alexander ABT RUS 3.6 1 2 2 3 Brian JOUBERT FRA 8.6 2 3 6 4 Stéphane LAMBIEL SUI 9.2 4 6 4 5 Frederic DAMBIER FRA 10.6 4 10 3 6 Ilia KLIMKIN RUS 11.2 2 4 8 7 Ivan DINEV BUL 11.6 3 9 5 8 Andrejs VLASCENKO GER 12.0 5 5 7 9 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR 16.6 6 7 10 10 Gabriel MONNIER FRA 17.6 5 11 9 11 Dmitri DMITRENKO UKR 18.0 3 8 12 12 Stefan LINDEMANN GER 21.0 7 12 11 13 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 23.2 6 13 13 14 Tomas VERNER CZE 27.4 8 17 14 15 Margus HERNITS EST 27.6 8 14 16 16 Vakhtang MURVANIDZE GEO 29.4 9 18 15 17 Juraj SVIATKO SVK 30.2 9 16 17 18 Gheorghe CHIPER ROM 32.0 10 15 19 19 Gregor URBAS SLO 33.8 11 19 18 20 Sergei RYLOV AZE 38.8 11 24 20 21 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE 39.4 7 26 21 22 Angelo DOLFINI ITA 40.0 12 22 22 23 Matthew DAVIES GBR 40.4 12 21 23 24 Patrick MEIER SUI 42.0 15 20 24 25 Michael SHMERKIN ISR 13 23 26 Markus LEMINEN FIN 13 25 27 Hristo TURLAKOV BUL 10 29 28 Bertalan ZAKANY HUN 14 27 29 Daniel PEINADO ESP 15 28 30 Clemens JONAS AUT 14 30 31 Bartosz DOMANSKI POL 16 31 Aidas REKLYS LTU 16 33 Tayfun ANAR TUR 17 33 Ivan KINCIK SVK 17 35 Aramis GRIGORIAN ARM 18 35 Milos MILANOVIC YUG 18 R Panagiotis MARKOUIZOS GRE For further information please contact: 2002 European Figure Skating Championships Aline Bussat Ingweresen, Michelle Bohin, ISU Media Coordinator Press Officer Tel: + 41 21 620 78 08 Tel: +1 (647) 221 31 06 E-mail: bussat@isu.ch E-mail: media@euroskating2002.com