The Road to Dortmund Begins
by Sal Zanca, Special to U.S. Figure Skating Online |
| Michelle Kwan Photo by Michelle Harvath |
Defending World champion Michelle Kwan can rest easy about many of the competitors at the European Championships. At Europeans, Sebestyen only had four triples in her gold medal-winning free skate. Silver medalist Elena Liashenko had six triples, but Kwan has defeated both of them a number of times.
Hungary's Sebestyen and Viktoria Pavuk were helped both by the hometown fans at Europeans and by the luck of the draw. The draw had 2003 World silver medalist Elena Sokolova skating first in the short program at 1 p.m. after a very early practice (6:30 a.m.) that same morning.
Sokolova, who was second to Kwan last season at Worlds, looked to be over the weight and health problems she had early in the season as she was doing triple-triples in practice. But when she needed one in the short program, it didn't happen. Sokolova said things may be different at Worlds, where a qualifying round will most likely give her a better draw in the short program.
"I have one more event this season," Sokolova said. "I hope I'll prepare for it much better than here."
Russia's Irina Slutskaya only has thoughts of preparing. Her health problems throughout the season have slowed her preparation, and it's still not certain whether she'll compete.
In men's, Russia's Evgeny Plushenko must turn things around after losses to Brian Joubert of France and Emanuel Sandhu of Canada in major competitions this season. He may have had a string of 6.0s in St. Petersburg at the Russian national championships, but Joubert beat him with two quads at the Europeans. And a technicality in the new judging system got the better of Plushenko in his loss to Sandhu at the Grand Prix Final.
"I still look forward to going to the World Championships," Plushenko said after finishing second in Budapest. "I will skate better."
However, so may Joubert and even U.S. champion Johnny Weir, who has promised a quad at the World Championships.
Joubert was helped by Plushenko's former rival on the ice, Alexei Yagudin, and Joubert said the Olympic gold medalist will be in Dortmund to help out more.
Three-time European pairs champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin beat Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao at Skate Canada, but that was in October. By December, Shen and Zhao were flawless, and they bypassed the Four Continents Championships. If Shen and Zhao pretend Germany is like the United States, there is no stopping them. Two of their greatest performances in the last year have been in the U.S. — at the 2003 World Championships in Washington, D.C., and at the Grand Prix Final in Colorado Springs.
Russia's Totmianina had a knee injury that forced them to cut down the difficulty in their program — a change from earlier in the season. Nevertheless, they've proven they're the top rivals to Shen and Zhao for gold.
In ice dancing, Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov won the European title, but it wasn't as easy at it looked. Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski skated with them to a virtual tie in the free dance. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto – with the experience of three different scoring systems this season – may give the U.S. a long-hoped-for medal.
Stay tuned for more on the Road to Dortmund. Over the next few weeks U.S. Figure Skating Online will highlight some of the contenders for the World podium. Next stop — Who is Julia Sebestyen, the new European champion? Who is Viktoria Pavuk? Sebestyen and Pavuk — a Hungarian veteran and a Hungarian rookie — defeated the Russians in Budapest.
