Outskating the competition
Kwan, Plushenko celebrate start of the new year
Posted: Sunday January 10, 1999 02:36 PM
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Kwan: "I felt really good out there today" AP |
TOKYO (AP) -- Michelle Kwan and Yevgeni Plushenko outshone the professionals Sunday as the U.S. champion won the women's title and the up-and-coming Russian took the men's crown at the Honda Lev Cup.
The ice dancing title went to the Russian professional pair of Maya Usova and Evgteny Platov.
Olympic-eligible Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia triumphed in the pairs competition.
The event, the second since its inauguration three years ago, was a one-day meet.
In the interpretive free program before a capacity crowd of 10,000 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Kwan and Plushenko retained the leads they had after the short program.
Kwan, the 18-year-old world champion, started with a single axel that was reduced from a planned double axel.
It was the only flaw for the Nagano Olympic silver medalist in a program that also included spirals, spins and flying camels in addition to a couple of clean triple jumps to the music from "East of Eden."
Kwan finished ahead of Maria Butyrskaya and her Russian compatriot Irina Slutskaya.
Japan's Yuka Sato, who turned professional after winning the 1994 world championship, placed fourth.
"I felt really good out there today," said Kwan. "The practice was good, but the first mistake was a little stupid. And after the mistake, I told myself, `OK, Michelle, you've got to get into it, fight in good attitude and just forget about the first mistake.'"
For her free program Kwan received a perfect 6.0 mark from one judge. Last year, she was awarded a total of 17 perfect scores.
In the free program of professional-amateur skating, greater emphasis is placed on the skaters' interpretation of the music and artistry than on technical difficulty.
Since the event requires three different triple jumps at the most for women and four for men, no skaters tried a quadruple jump, which only a handful of men have achieved in international competitions.
The 16-year-old Plushenko, fresh from winning in the Skate Canada last November and then in the NHK Trophy a month later, started with a clean triple axel and flying camel spins.
He went on with a circle step sequence, spirals and landed three more flawless jumps.
"One-hundred percent," Plushenko said of his performance. "For me, this victory means a big significance to start the season with."
"I didn't try to jump a quadruple, which wasn't necessary in this event," said Plushenko.
Most recently, he achieved a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination in the NHK Trophy at Sapporo in northern Japan.
On Sunday, Russian Alexei Yagudin placed second and Todd Eldredge of the United States was third.
Takeshi Honda, the only Japanese who has jumped a quadruple in an international meet, finished fifth behind Canada's professional skater Kurt Browning.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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