Russian women sweep
Butyrskaya lands seven triple jumps to edge teammates
Posted: Saturday January 30, 1999 12:38 PM
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At 26, Butyrskaya's experience and elegance helped her hold off her two younger teammates AP |
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Maria Butyrskaya, leading two younger teammates, gave Russia another medals sweep today in the European Figure Skating Championships.
Russian skaters have won all four European titles three years in a row. Their last loss was in the men's event in 1996, when Viatcheslav Zagarodniuk of Ukraine upset two Russians.
Butyrskaya, the defending champion, was far ahead of the field with an elegant routine to a piano concerto. She landed seven triple jumps with only a slight mistake at the end marring her program.
Still she scored marks of 5.8 and 5.9 for presentation to hold onto to her title.
Julia Soldatova and Viktoria Volchkova, just out of junior ranks, were second and third.
The 17-year-old Soldatova also did seven triples but without the style of Butyrskaya.
Volchkova, 16 and making her international debut in senior competition, started impressively with five solid triples in the first half of her routine. But, weakened by the flu, she made three mistakes in a row and switched positions with Soldatova.
The Russian might have gone 1-2-3-4-5 if allowed more than three entries. Left off the squad this year was two-time European champion Irina Slutskaya and Yelena Sokolova, who won two Grand Prix events.
Even without Olympic champion Ilya Kulik, the Russian men are equally strong, easily winning all the medals.
Alexei Yagudin won an winner-take all free skating over teammates Yevgeny Plushenko and Alexei Urmanov, the 1994 Olympic champion making a comeback.
Yagudin hit a quad and seven other triple jumps to defend his title after a poor qualifying. Plushenko did another quad-triple combination of the season but fell on two other jumps.
The pair titles went to Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov in place of world champions Yelena Berezhanaya and Anton Sikarulidze, who had to withdraw just before the final free skate.
Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov took the ice dance event.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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