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Plushenko, Slutskaya repeat Russians win gold at Cup of Russia skating event
ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -- Former world pairs champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze made a triumphant return to the rink on Saturday by winning the Russian Grand Prix. "We're back," said Sikharulidze after the Russians edged out twice world silver medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China. The Russians missed last season's world championship in Nice after Berezhnaya failed a drugs test and the pair were stripped of the gold medal at the European championship in Vienna. "The worst thing was that we didn't get a chance to perform at the world championship in Nice, but we put that behind us and now we're trying to be even better than last year," he said. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, the last pair to skate, performed an emotional and highly-entertaining free program to the music from a Charlie Chaplin soundtrack. After they had finished, Sikharulidze clenched his fist, then embraced Berezhnaya while a partisan home crowd gave the pair a standing ovation. All seven judges put them first with the scores of 5.9 for artistic impression on all cards. The Chinese pair, who skated second to last, matched the Russians for difficulty, but lacked their artistry and flair. "We're very pleased with our performance tonight, this was the best we skated so far this year," the runners up said through an interpreter. European bronze medalists Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek of Poland finished third. European champion Yevgeny Plushenko skated a near-perfect free program to win the men's competition. Plushenko, who turned 18 earlier this month, opened with a huge quadruple-triple-double combination, then performed another quadruple-triple sequence in addition to landing five other triple jumps. He was rewarded with two perfect 6.0 scores from the French and Bulgarian judges. "It really doesn't matter who skated here and who didn't," said Plushenko, who finished a disappointing fourth at last season's world championship. "If I just concentrate on my skating instead of thinking about world championship medals than I can beat anybody." Former world junior champion Ilya Klimkin of Russia, fourth after Friday's short program, finished second with a clean free program, dropping American Matthew Savoie to third. "I'm pretty happy to finish third because it was probably my best skating this year and also the guys ahead of me skated very well tonight," said Savoie. American Michael Weiss, who beat Plushenko for the bronze in Nice, had another disappointing day after landing only two triple jumps to finish sixth. "I had a broken foot and was off the ice for 15 days," he said. "And looking back, probably I shouldn't have competed here because I was not ready." European champion Irina Slutskaya was the clear winner among the women as the Russians swept all three titles on Saturday. Fellow-Russian Elena Sokolova came in second ahead of 15-year-old American Sarah Hughes. World silver medalists Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio lead the ice dancing competition going into Sunday's free dance.
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