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    Russians shine at ISU Grand Prix final
    (China Daily)
    Updated: 2004-12-20 10:32

    Russia's elite figure skaters won three of four gold medals at the 2004 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Beijing on Saturday, with Evgeni Plushenko, Irina Slutskaya and Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov claiming victories in the men's singles, ladies' singles and ice dancing respectively, while home favorites Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo successfully defended their pairs' title.


    Russia's, Julia Obertas, right, and Sergei Slavno perform during an exhibition for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2004 held in Beijing, China, Sunday, Dec 19, 2004. The exhibition capped two days of intensive competition among international figure skaters. [AP]

    Taking the lead in the men's pool after the short programme, Plushenko, the so-called "prince on ice," opened his programme with a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop-double loop combination. The 22-year-old went on to complete a high triple axel, a triple axel-double toeloop and a triple lutz-triple toeloop in his programme to "The Godfather" by Edvin Marton.

    Skating with power and expression, the Olympic silver medallist ended with thunderous applause and a rain of fluffy toys from the audience with the judges awarding him a score of 167.40 points (84.10 for technical elements and 83.30 for programme components). The total of 251.75 set him a new personal best and let him well ahead of Jeffery Buttle from Canada.

    "I'm very satisfied with my performance today. It was the best of the season so far," said Plushenko. "I'm very surprised that there are lots of Russian here, it was really nice. I did a clean programme and that was very important to me."

    Buttle finished in second with 140.20 for free skating and 216.65 for total. "Overall I'm very happy about what I did," said Buttle. "I'm very satisfied with being No 2. It's a really strong field."


    China's Shen Xue, top, and Zhao Hongbo perform during the pairs free skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Beijing Saturday Dec. 18, 2004. The pair won the overall Grand Prix Final title. [AP]

    China's Li Chengjiang jumped from fifth place to grab the bronze with a clean routine, which gained him 135.16 points and a total of 201.07. "I'm thrilled with my performance here at home," said the 2001 Four Continents champion. "The way the audience supported me was just great, and I gave something back to them. It wasn't included in my choreography, it was a spontaneous emotion. This was the best programme of the season so far."

    In the ladies' pool, the 2002 world champion Slutskaya once again beat reigning world champion, Japan's Shizuka Arakawa, after the Cup of Russia. Performing to "Wonderland" and "Whispers from the Mirror," Slutskaya landed a triple lutz followed by a triple salchow-double loop-double toeloop combination. The Muscovite scored 115.42 for free skating and a total of 180.88 to win the gold.

    "It was good but not perfect. I still have time to work hard to improve myself," said Slutskaya. "I think the Japanese skaters did pretty well tonight, but the score has shown my advantages on the ice, and I do not think they can give me too much of a challenge in the near future."

    Arakawa went for several errors in her routine and only scored 96.14 for free skating. The total of 160.24 put her in second place before Canada's Joannie Rochette, who got a score of 156.68.

    Russia's reigning ice dancing world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov's "Tosca" programme featured a reverse rotational lift with changes of positions for Navka as well as fast paced diagonal footwork and an interesting serpentine lift. Their powerful and emotional programme secured their overnight leads and earned them 114.93 points to pocket the third gold for Russia.

    The American reigning Four Continents champions Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto got the silver by 108.16 points for free dance and a total score of 170.53.

    lbena Denkova and Maxim Staviski from Bulgaria scored 107.89 and a total of 167.62 to jump from the fourth to third.

    China's defending champions Shen and Zhao won the host country the only gold in a compelling routine to the soundtrack of "The Soong Sisters" which tells the destiny of three sisters in revolutionary China. The world silver medallists performed a double axel-triple toeloop sequence, a high throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop as well as a triple twist and two Lasso lifts. Their strong programme earned them a standing ovation and a score of 136.02. With a total of 206.54, they set a new personal best and earned a rare high score in the pairs' competitions.

    "I think that we gave a very strong performance because the audience supported us so well," said Zhao. "That gave us extra confidence, so we could skate better and better during the competition."

    "I felt great during our performance when the spectators rose to their feet. It was very exciting," Shen added.

    Russia's two-time European champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov received 119.90 and a total of 187.32 to settle in second.

    Another Chinese pair Pang Qing and Tong Jian earned 113.32 for free skating and a total of 173.66 to take the bronze.

    "We are very glad with the results tonight," said Tong. "The music, which is so familiar to the Chinese spectators helped us a lot. We skated relaxed today because of the active feedback from the audience."

    The three-day competition concluded with a spectacular exhibition gala performed by all the top five skaters and pairs on Sunday.



     
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