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| Saturday, March 3 |
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| Russians sweep medals Associated Press | |||
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Irina Slutskaya captured her fourth European figure skating crown on Saturday as Russian skaters closed the championships by sweeping the women's medals.
Slutskaya, the last skater to compete, stepped confidently
on to the ice knowing all she needed to do was stay on her
skates to retain her title after an error-riddled performance by
chief rival Maria Butryskaya.
Despite twice crashing heavily to the ice, Butryskaya
managed to hold on to the silver, edging out team mate Viktoria
Volchkova, who took the bronze for the third successive year.
It was the third consecutive year that Russia had won all
three women's medals.
With no need to take risks and weakened by the flu,
Slutskaya offered the capactiy crowd a watered-down version of
her normally challenging Don Quixote free skate, foregoing her
opening combination and scaling down two other triples to
doubles.
But on an afternoon of mediocre skating the effort was more
than enough, the world silver medallist receiving first place
votes from all nine judges.
"I wasn't too pleased with my free program," Slutskaya
said. "I still feel my flu. I've only been skating for one week
and that's probably why I didn't do everything today."
The first of the medal contenders to skate, Butyrskaya began
strongly and landed her opening combination -- a triple lutz,
double toe loop.
But moments later the sultry Russian saw any hope of a third
European crown disappear when she fell awkwardly out of a triple
Salchow, slamming her chin on the ice.
Stunned, Butryskaya needed a few moments to recover but
never completely regained her composure and once again found
herself sliding along the ice on her backside, crumbling out of
her triple toe-loop.
Lenient Judges The judges, however, were in lenient mood, awarding her technical marks ranging from 5.2 to 5.6, far better than deserved. "After the short program I didn't have any chance to win gold so I just wanted to go and show what I could do," said Butyrskaya. "I felt good in the warm-up. "I was too confident on the triple loop because I usually never miss this jump. "I still think I have a very good free programme this year, I just have to get my brain right." The women's sweep capped another productive championships for the Russians, who also grabbed gold and silver in both the men's and pairs' events and made a return to the podium in the dance after a one-year absence, taking the bronze. Only three countries gained medals, the Russians taking eight, France three and Italy one. Such is the superiority of Russian skaters that only three times in the last six years has another country's national anthem been heard at a European championship.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |
ALSO SEE Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze reclaim pairs title Plushchenko retains European men's crowns Fusar Poli/Margaglio win Ice Dance gold Final results from the European Championships 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 Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze dazzle the crowd with a masterful performance.avi: 1312 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Russia's Irina Slutskaya soars high in the air to execute a perfect triple lutz.avi: 863 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |
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