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| Saturday, March 3 |
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| Plushchenko retains European men's crowns Associated Press | |||
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Yevgeny Plushchenko hit his unique
quad-triple-double combination and another quad toe to defend his
European Figure Skating title Thursday in an emotional rivalry with
fellow Russian Alexei Yagudin.
Normally reserved, Plushchenko skated boldly -- and grew more so
as he knocked off his more difficult elements, shimmying his
shoulders, then hips, toward the judges in a sequence that veered
toward dance. In addition to the quads, he hit seven triples, all
spotlessly clean.
He earned perfect 6.0s for both technical and artistic merit, a
feat rarely achieved.
Plushchenko, 18, himself acknowledged he had achieved a new
maturity, saying: "I grew up."
"I never expected 6.0s," said Plushchenko, enhancing a
newfound golden boy image with gold lame gloves and trim, and a
platinum blond mop hairstyle. "I just do my job and work hard.
Today I gave everything."
Even after those scores, the Plushchenko conceded that Yagudin,
skating later, could beat him. He did not, but the tension between
the Russians created an intense night of figure skating -- with both
top skaters for the first time hitting a pair of quads.
Yagudin, who said he hadn't watched Plushchenko, closed his eyes
in emotion after he completed his program -- two quads and seven
triples -- matching Plushchenko, only a little less securely.
Skating to music from Gladiator, Yagudin singled an early axel -- but hung tough and repeated the jump later.
"Other skaters would have been broken" said his coach, Tatiana
Tarasova.
In a measure of the closeness of the contest, two judges gave
Yagudin first places.
"I feel good. I just made one mistake I was fighting against
myself," said Yagudin, at 20 a three-time world and two-time
European champion. "We are not machines. This is life, sometimes
we lose, sometimes we win."
The Russian men failed to sweep the medals when Alexander Abt,
third going into the long program, failed on three triple-jump
attempts. Third place went to Stanick Jeanette of France, fourth in
the short program. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |
ALSO SEE Thursday's results from the European Championships Italian, French tie in European ice dance Q & A with Maurizio Margaglio Q & A with Barbara Fusar-Poli AUDIO/VIDEO   Russia's Evgeny Plushchenko carries out a difficult quad toe/triple toe/double loop combination.avi: 1351 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |
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