Not counting two jumps for Evgeni Plushenko

figure skating
Dancers Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov became the only Russians who managed to win gold in the Grand Prix final of figure skating, which ended in Colorado Springs, America. In pair skating, Tatyana Totmyanina - Maxim Marinin and Maria Petrova - Alexey Tikhonov received silver and bronze respectively. Evgeni Plushenko sensationally lost to Canadian Emanuel Sandhu.
Without any stretch of the imagination, the loss of the undisputed leader of the six-stage Grand Prix series, Evgeni Plushenko, who he was considered to be until its finale, can be classified as an exceptional event. Firstly, even despite the fall made by the world champion in the short program, he still won it, although with a very small advantage over the Canadian. But in the free program real miracles began. We must pay tribute to Sandhu, who spent the stages of the series rather gray and unstable, but managed to gather himself for the last start, as if for the last fight, and skated his free program flawlessly. Knowing this, Plushenko, who went onto the ice after Sandyu, one might say, simply outdid himself. Not only was he able to unmistakably and with good humor demonstrate all those complex elements that were initially included in large quantities in the script of his composition, but in some way, in his own way, he managed to do - and magnificently - two more additional jumps. And when, satisfied, he sat next to his coach Alexei Mishin, awaiting his grades, when he saw them, judging by the expression on his face, he fell, let’s say, into a state close to fainting. Because Sandhu received 228.29 points, and Plushenko - 225.19.
As Alexander Lakernik, our representative on the ISU Judicial Commission, subsequently explained, the blame for what happened was entirely on the new and, as has been said more than once, unfinished judging system, according to which this season the performances of figure skaters in the entire Grand Prix series (at the European Championships and world the old system will be used). The computer evaluated only those elements of Plushenko’s program that were initially planned in it and, accordingly, included in the machine. As for the additional difficult jumps, for the perfect execution of which our leader should, in theory, receive nine maximum points, he received zero points for them. In other words, the computer did not evaluate them at all.
As for how our couples looked on the ice of the high-mountainous Colorado Springs, compared to the world champions from China Xu Chen and Zhao Hongbo, frankly speaking, they looked pale. Even the ankle injury suffered by their partner shortly before the competition did not prevent the Chinese from skating in such a way that the audience fell into ecstasy and applauded the end of their performance. And for the first time in recent years, there were no women among the six Grand Prix finalists. Irina Slutskaya missed the series due to illness, and Elena Sokolova and Victoria Volchkova, despite the significance of their merits, were left outside the elite zone of world figure skating and did not make it to the finals. Predictions regarding the victory of the young American Sasha Cohen, who was only second in Colorado Springs after the Japanese Fumi Suguri, did not come true.
But Alexander Zhulin, coach of our only champions Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, was more than pleased with the performance of his players, who won all three types of dance duet competitions. Mr. Zhulin admitted that he was convinced with his own eyes that in terms of skill level, his wife’s partner Kostomarov had finally caught up with her and now the couple had achieved complete balance.
VALERIYA-MIRONOVA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 228 dated December 16, 2003, p. 23

Authors:

Valeria Mironova

Themes:

Figure skating

The computer crashed in a free program