The following competitors withdrew prior to the start of the competition:
Ksenija Jastsenjski (YUG)
Alexei Urmanov (RUS) - due to an eye infection (conjunctivitis) which blurs his vision.
Shiskova / Naumov (RUS) - due the flu, which has affected her ears and thus her balance.
Bereznaia / Shliakov (LAT) - due to her training accident. She is still hospitalized.
Protopopov / Protopopov skated in the opening ceremony. Now 60 and 63 years young, they have obtained Swiss citizenship and want to reinstate.
Sofia is trying for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. This will be their third attempt to get the Winter Olympics.
First place prize money for this competition is $20,000 for singles, $30,000 (for the team) for pairs and ice dancing.
CDs for Worlds will be the Samba, and the Tango Romantica.
In the pairs event Kazakova and Dmitriev moved up from second in the short to win the free skate and the event. They omitted the triple twist, but still managed to pull ahead of Wotzel and Steuer, the defending champions, who had a bad fall on throw triple toe loop. Dmitriev was last European champion in 1991 and 1992 with his former partner Natalia Miskuteonok. Russian teams have won this event 29 times in the past 32 years. By placing third, Abitbol and Bernadis are the first French team to medal in this event since 1932. The Russian team of Eltsova and Bushkov placed a disapointing fourth.
In the men's short program Zagorodniuk placed first with a clean program (the Volga Boat Song number again). Kulik placed second on a five-four split thanks to an "oversight" by the Bulgarian judge who seems not to have deducted for his doing a double jump instead of a triple jump from out of footwork. Cousins placed third landing his first a triple axel - triple toe combination in competition. Both Pashkevitch and Yagudin landed triple axel - double toe as their combinations. Yagudin is the current World Junior Champion, and is the replacement entry for Urmanov who has an eye infection. Both Millot and Candeloro fell on their triple axels and Dmitrenko two footed his. Candeloro in currently in seventh place after the short, Millot ninth.
In the men's long program Zagorodniuk was the clear winner. He landed six of seven triples, singling an attempt at triple Salchow. Pashkevitch moved up from fourth in the short with a strong long to finish second. Kulik held onto third with a fifth place finish in the long. Cousins dropped from third in the short, falling on his first triple axel, but landing his second later in the program and four other triples. Candeloro did not have a good week, placing seventh in the short and fourth in the long for a fifth place finish. He said he felt that he was skating at only 80% of his ability this week.
Grischuk and Platov won the free dance, and the dance event, with 5.9s. The Ukraine couple of Romanova and Yaroshenko moved passed Anissina and Piezerat to win the bronze medal, while Krylova nad Ovsiannikov maintained second place. All three couples are coached by former World Champion Natalia Linichuk. Of the teams who competed in Europeans last year, the biggest improvement was seen in Winkler and Lohse who moved up to a tie for 9th place compared to a 15th place finish last year.
In the ladies short program Bonaly won on a majority of seconds. She recieved three firsts while Slutskaya received three, Szewczenko received one, and Butyrskaya received two. Bonlay landed triple Lutz - double toe but missed triple toe from footwork and had a minor slip on the footwork sequence. Bonlay skated to "Little Princess" - is that a concept, or what?
Slutskaya skated strong with clean jumps, reminiscent in style to Bayul but superior in content. Bonaly had the most difficult content, but fell once, and acknowledge her performance was less than great. She said she had been very ill over the Christmas period. Slutskaya is the first Russian woman to win the European ladies event - first held in 1930. Markova, who was second last year, had a rough time of it, ending up eleventh this year. In general, the quality of the skating is reported to have been spotty, with most of the skaters making multiple errors.
FS Skater
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SP FS Skater
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SP FS Skater
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First CD - Westminster Waltz
Second CD - Silver Samba
C1 C2 OD FD Skater
1. 1 1 1 1 Grischuk / Platov (RUS)
2. 2 2 2 2 Krylova /Ovsiannikov (RUS)
3. 4 4 3 3 Romanova / Yaroshenko (UKR)
4. 3 3 4 4 Anissina / Peizerat (FRA)
5. 5 5 5 5 Lobatcheva / Averbukh (RUS)
6. 6 6 6 6 Drobiazko / Vanagas (LIT)
7. 7 10 7 7 Mrazova / Simecek (CZE)
8. 9 7 8 8 Fusar Poli /Margaglio (ITA)
9. 8 8 10 9 Winkler / Lohse (GER)
9. 10 9 9 9 Nowak / Kolasinski (POL)
11. 11 11 11 11 Humphreys / Askew (GBR)
12. 12 13 12 12 Piton / Piton (FRA)
13. 13 12 13 13 Grushina / Goncharov (UKR)
14. 15 14 14 14 Jacquemard / Gayet (FRA)
15. 14 15 15 17 Vondrkova / Kral (CZE)
16. 16 16 16 17 Diener / Pospelov (SWI)
17. 18 17 17 16 Fermi / Baldi (ITA)
18. 17 18 18 18 Berkes /Szentirmai (HUN)
19. 19 20 20 19 Hanley / Serkov (LIT)
20. 22 22 19 21 Mossenkova / Kurakin (EST)
21. 21 21 23 20 Koinuma / Arakelian (ARM)
22. 20 19 21 22 Kuusniemi / Walker (FIN)
23. 23 23 22 24 Uotila / Mattila (FIN)
24. 24 24 24 23 Babusikova / Mesaros (SVK)