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King at 16? Plushenko leads at World Figure Skating Championships
Posted: Tuesday March 23, 1999 06:43 PM
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) --Yevgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin of Russia set up another free skating confrontation by taking the top two positions Tuesday in the men's short program at the World Championships. Plushenko won the short program -- the second of the competition's three parts -- by taking all judges with a top performance to "Hava Nagila," hitting all the required elements. Yagudin's circus-themed routine placed him in second, followed by Elvis Stojko and American Michael Weiss. Yagudin and Plusehenko on Monday each won their qualifying sections, which counts for 20 percent of the final score. Yagudin, with a sore left calf, wasn't perfect Tuesday. He stepped out of a triple-triple conmbination. Neither was Stojko, who two-footed a quad and had only a triple-double. Weiss had a slightly easier routine than the other three, and two-footed his triple flip. As a result the judges' votes among the three were split. Each had three second-place votes among the nine judges. But Yagudin had enough thirds and fourths to come in second. "I made a mistake ... the real battle is Thursday," Yagudin said. The short program is worth 30 percent of the final score, so the second-place keeps him in contention. If he wins Thursday's free program, he retains his title. If Plushenko wins, he becomes a 16-year-old world champion. Stojko needs major mistakes from both Russians to win his fourth world title. Weiss is also in the same situation. A win in the long program doesn't give him the title automatically as it does the Russians. He needs help from others. Weiss, assessing his fourth-place status, said "It has been an interesting night, you don't know what the judges really want." Russians took the lead in the ice dance event with Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov putting in a smooth performance to the Paso Double and Tango Romantica dances. That put them solidly in first for the portion counting 20 percent of the total score. There was a tie for second between Canada's Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz and France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. Each ranked ahead of the other in one of the dances although Anissina and Peizerat received a first place vote from the French judge. The original dance to the waltz is on Thursday followed by Friday's free dance. Early in the evening, China's Guo Zhengxin hit a quadruple jump out of a series of fast steps, becoming the first skater to do that in a world championships short program. Last month his compatriot Min Zhang did one at the Four Contintents competition. On Wednesday, the women finally start their competition with the qualification round. Defending champion Michelle Kwan is enduring a head cold and has started taking antibiotics. "I need some medicine to help me fight on the ice," Kwan said. In Tuesday's practice, Kwan fell at the end of a triple-double while working on her short program. She struggled for balance on another but overall her training was good. After the qualifications, Kwan will have a day off before Friday's short program and the long program Saturday.
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