Russian women hold top three spots
Posted: Wednesday January 27, 1999 07:02 PM
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Butyrskaya completed five triples while earning marks in the 5.6-5.7 range Matthew Stockman/Allsport |
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Defending champion Maria Butyrskaya led three Russian women to top qualifying spots today at the European Figure Skating Championships.
However, Russia's bid for a title sweep for the third straight year all but ended with the withdrawal of the pairs champions.
Olympic silver medalists Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze dropped out hours before tonight's pairs finals because Berezhnaya has the flu. That puts French couple Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis in the lead entering the free program.
In the women's competition, Butyrskaya was the easy winner of one qualifying group. She skated first in her group, doing triple jumps in a near-empty arena at an hour better suited for breakfast.
"All of it felt like practice," Butyrskaya said. "It didn't feel like a competition."
Teammate Viktoria Volchkova, one of a number of rising junior stars in Russia, came in second in her first major international competition.
In the other group, former junior world champion Julia Soldatova captured the top spot.
The women have their short program on Friday with the free skating concluding the championships on Saturday.
Butyrskaya completed five triples and earned marks in the 5.6-5.7 range, high for the first skater.
The only skater to come close to her in the group was Volchkova, who did four triples to an elegant routine to music from "Gone with the Wind".
Only 16, Volchkova has been just below the top trio for the past two years in Russia but not able to break into the upper echelon until this year.
Soldatova captured the second group with five triples, falling on another.
She was seventh in last year's Europeans but that wasn't good enough to keep her on the Russian Olympic team.
"Of coursed I was disappointed but I will get over it," Soldatova said. "And there are others to go to."
The Russian women are strong this season.
Left off the team were Irina Slutskaya, two-time European champion and the current world silver medalist, Yelena Sokolova, who won two Grand Prix events last fall and Daria Timochenko, the current junior world champion.
Bereznaya and Sikhardulidze won nine competitions in a row since getting the silver medals at the Olympics in Nagano last February.
They won the short program easily and were heavily favored to retain their title.
After years of dominating the pairs and ice dance in the former Soviet Union, the individual skaters are now in the forefront.
Russian men have won three of the last four titles in that event and the Russian women have won the last three European titles.
The Russian men went 1-2-3 last year and are in a position to three-peat.
Alexei Urmanov, Yevgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin are so close that Thursday's free skating will decide who takes the championship.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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