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No leads Police to question figure skater again
Posted: Wednesday March 29, 2000 04:56 PM
NICE, France (AP) -- French pairs skater Stephane Bernadis, who said an assailant cut his arm, faces another round of police questioning after he and partner Sarah Abitbol skate their free program tonight at the World Figure Skating Championships. "Today he skates, tomorrow we will question him again," Nice police commissioner Bernard Orengo said today. Police say they have no leads on a suspect, and Orengo said Bernadis was in shock when police talked to him after he reported being cut Tuesday by a man who knocked on his hotel room door and wielded a razor. Investigators hope to get a better description of the attacker. Six investigators have been assigned to the case, said Orengo, adding: "That's a lot for a superficial cut." The cut on the inside of Bernadis' forearm was about eight inches, said Diedier Gailhaguet, head of the event's organizing committee and president of the French skating federation. Bernadis, 26, received three stitches. Orengo said the medical examiner's report indicated they were precautionary. Bernadis wore a bandage covering his forearm during practices Tuesday night and today. The seven-time French champions practiced their lifts, double twist and a throw jump ahead of tonight's final free program. Security at skaters' hotels has been visibly increased, with police posted on every floor, since the report of the attack, which recalled the blow to Nancy Kerrigan's knee during the 1994 U.S. nationals and the 1993 courtside stabbing of tennis player Monica Seles. Security at figure skating championships has been a concern since the Kerrigan attack in Detroit. Her chief rival, Tonya Harding, pleaded guilty to covering up for her former husband and his friends, who planned and carried out the attack. Kerrigan's injury was too serious to compete in the nationals, but she came back for the Olympics and finished a close second to Oksana Baiul. The attack on Seles at a Hamburg tournament by an obsessed Steffi Graf fan took a severe psychological toll on Seles, who was unable to return to competition for more than two years.
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