Drive to victory
Honda shakes off ankle injury to win Four Continents
Posted: Sunday February 28, 1999 01:17 AM
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Japan’s Takeshi Honda skates the free program Saturday, which, combined with his lead in the first round, gave him the gold. AP |
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, (Reuters) -- Japanese 17-year-old
Takeshi Honda shrugged off an injured ankle to spin
seven clean triple jumps in a nearly flawless performance to win
the ISU Four Continents figure skating championships Saturday.
China's Chengjiang Li, 20, the last of 18 men out of the
gate, dazzled the judges with a high-flying toe-triple toe
combination that helped vault him from fourth to second place,
leaving Canada's three-time world champion Elvis Stojko in
third.
"This morning my ankle hurt a lot and I couldn't practice
very well. I had to use ice and massage," said Honda, whose
injured ankle has severely hampered his training since early
January.
"When my music started, it felt okay but at the end ... it started to hurt again," Honda said.
"I didn't feel any pressure. I was relaxed," said Honda,
was the first-round leader and skated to the music "The Man In
The Iron Mask" for the final.
Honda was ranked 11th in the world last year.
Chengjiang's second-place was a remarkable achievement for a
male skater from China, whose men have yet to establish
themselves in the upper echelon of international competition.
"When I finished I was so overwhelmed and saw it as a big
success for me,' Chengjiang said through an interpreter. "I
heard the support of the audience and it helped me a lot."
Stojko, 26, also nailed seven triple jumps but two-footed
his quad attempt and singled the first triple axel.
The judges were loudly booed by the partisan capacity crowd
of 6,155.
Honda (center) is accompanied by China's Chengjang Ci (left) and Canada's Elvis Stojko, who won the silver and bronze medals, respectively. AP |
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"You do your best and they're still pulling marks out like
that," said Stojko.
"All that matters to me is the way I skate, so we're just
going to go from there right to Worlds and sock it to them
again," he added.
Honda won $22,000, Li $16,500 and Stojko $11,000 Saturday.
Stojko, saying a long-standing groin injury is not fully
healed, has asked the International Skating Union to exempt him
from the Grand Prix series final Mar. 4-7 in St. Petersburg,
Russia.
Stojko said he needs the time to rest and train for the
World Championships in Helsinki Mar. 21-28.
If, as expected, the ISU grants Stojko's request, Honda is
in line to take his place.
But because of his injury, Honda said he will stay home,
too, leaving the spot open for Germany's Andrejs Vlascenko.
The Four Continents event, the counterpart to the
long-standing European Championships, is open to skaters from
North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Eighty-one skaters from 11 of 16 "Four Continents"
countries participated in the inaugural event this week.
Other Four Continents' titles went to China's Xue Shen and
Hongbo Zhao in pairs, Uzbekistan's Tatiana Malinina in the
women's, and Canada's Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz in ice
dance.
Osaka, Japan, will host the 2000 Four Continents event.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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