| NEWS ARCHIVE 02/03 SEASON |
 |
| Klimkin on top as Abt has problems with boots 26.12.2002 Just as Viktoria Volchkova, Plushenko withdrew because of his ilness and everybody thought that Abt will claim his first gold medal. However it wasn't to be. Sasha landed both the first part of the quadruple toe-double toe combination and the triple axel on two feet. And to make matters worse, he touched down with his hand on the landing of the triple lutz. All the other elements and his presentation were naturally very good as always but the mistakes he made allowed Ilia Klimkin to easily win the short program. As always, his routine to the music from the X-Files, contained interesting choreography and excellent spins. Ilia landed the quadruple toe-double toe combination and a triple flip out of steps. His only mistake came on the triple axel from which he stepped out. In third place is Stanislav Timchenko who skated an easy but clean program, consisting of a triple axel-triple toeloop combination, a shaky triple lutz and a double axel. As Abt had deductions of at least 0.7 so it seems to be completely ridiculous that Timchenko was placed below him but as it is the Russian Nationals, you can expect anything. And so Konstantin Menshov who was 17th last year surprised everyone by skating a clean short with the same elements as Stanislav to place fourth. His combination was a bit shaky and his footwork was simple though. Fifth is Andrei Griazev who had landed triple axel-double toe, a shaky lutz and a double axel and had a very good presentation. Down in dissapointing sixth is Alexander Shubin who won the Junior Grand Prix earlier this month. He fell on the opening triple axel which was supposed to be in combination but landed the triple lutz and the double axel. |
 |
 |
| The unique Ilia Klimkin leads the way in absence of Evgeny Plushenko. Photo @ AP |
| Eva-Maria Fitze comes back as a pair skater Recently Germany has taken a real nosedive in the pairs department. Now it looks as if there's a change to change that. Recently two new partnerships have formed. Mikkeline and Norman and now Rico Rex and Eva-Marie Fitze. At 14, she became the youngest ever German champion. She used to land the triple axel during trainings and seemed to be a big talent for the future. Unfortunately her career was interrupted by bulimia after the 98/99 season and she hasn't managed to make the team since. Rico Rex used to skate with Sylvia Dimitrov before but didn't achieve a big success (best results 8th at Europeans and 13th at Worlds). He started to skate with Katarina Rybkowski then but couldn't even make a team with her. So for both Rico and Eva-Marie this can be an opportunity to make it to the major championships again. |
| Norman Jeschke teamed up with Mikkeline Kierkgaard! Mikkeline Kierkgaard missed the 00/01 and the 01/02 season. She is a very ambitious person but although she worked very hard, she couldn't manage to include the triple flip and triple lutz in her repertuar. She is a petite girl so the decision to switch pairs may seem to be a very good one for her. Her triple toe and salchow were 100% consistent so she needs to learn the pair moves now and she will be able to achieve much more success than as a solo skater, with three triples only. Norman Jeschke has been skating with Mariana Kautz before and two latest seasons turned out to bring no improvement in their placements. They both seemed to be very inconsistent but you could easily observe that Mariana was not a big talent. She had very bad postions in the lifts and it was the Norman who seemed better out of the two of them. So the move can turn out to be very good for both Mikkeline and him. They have chosen to represent Germany. Unfortunately they won't be able to start skating next season already and I'm certainly looking forward to watching them skate! |
 |
| Zagorska and Siudek are training in Canada Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek have visited Canada to train with Richard Gauthier, the former coach of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. After their dissapointing 7th place finish in Salt Lake City Olympics, they decided to really work hard on the throw triple loop and the throw triple axel. They would be glad to become the first couple which landed it in competition (Abitbol/Bernardis tried it twice but failed both times) and they have been landing it consistently in practice. They hope to get the loop ready for next season and maybe they will risk doing the axel as well. The problem is that Dorota and Mariusz have promised many times before to include the more difficult elements and didn't do it. They have the best lifts and if they improved their presentation and performed the more difficult throws, they could challenge for medals again. And because they decided to stay eligible until Turino 2006, they need to progress all the time. Hopefully the times of leaving old programs for next season are finished and we will finally see a big improvement. They were planning to visit Canada in may, propably for a month. When I will get to know any more details, I will let you know. |
| Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek performing a triple twist Photo @ AP |
 |
| Xue Shen and Hongboa Zhao skating their short program on the way to win one of their three gold medals. Photo @ AP |
 |
| Totmianina/Marinin skating their free program to "Cotton Club" |
| Mirko Mueller decides to finish his competetive career 19.10.2002 He was pair World bronze medallist in 1998 with Peggy Schwarz but as, due to her incosistency, they couldn't make any improvement in their placements, they decided to split. Peggy is now coaching children in Germany while Mirko decided to look for a new partner. He found Sarah Jentgens who retired from skating but decided to go back to skate with him. They won the German Nationals in 2002 and were sent to the European championships. In the short program they landed side-by-side triple toes and a throw triple salchow, however all Sarah's jumps were double-footed. They were 9th after the short programme but had to withdraw due to ilness. Since Mariana Kautz/Norman Jeschke placed 14th at Olympics, they were sent to Worlds and Mirko had to wait yet another year to take part in ISU Championships. Recently Kautz and Jeschke split and the German Federation decided to send Jentgens/Mueller to three Grand Prix events! It seemed that this season will be a breaking point in their career so it was a big surprise to everyone when Mirko suddenly announced that he decided to give up skating. He now wants to focus on his studies and his family. He criticised the Federation for not helping him to find a new partner. Mirko was one of the best partners in pairs skating. I don't remember him making any mistake on any of his side-by-side jumps! He certainly will be missed. This is good news for two other German couples, Eva-Maria Fitze/Rico Rex and Nicole Noennig/Matthias Bleyer, though as they should now easily make it to the European Championships as Germany has two spots for their pairs. |
| Natalia Romaniuta and Daniil Barantsev are looking for new partners 19.10.2002 They were the most promising young couple. Double Junior World champions, in 2000 and 2001, they were developing very fast and it looked as if the Senior title can be within their reach in several years to come. There have been rumours about their plans to finish the partnership but nobody took them seriously. Now it has been confirmed on their official page: http://home.snafu.de/figureskating/romaniuta-barantsev They have been already removed from the Grand Prix roster. They are both currently looking for new partners. Their coach, Alexander Gorshkov however still has one promising couple left as he traines Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski. Last year he started to work with Agnieszka Dulej and Slawomir Janicki, a young Polish team. |
| Injuries strike, stars pull out of Grand Prix events 19.10.2002 The line up for the 2002/2003 Grand Prix has been changing constantly over the last days. It's because many of the top skaters became injured and they had to withdraw. As Slam sports says Timothy Goebel has strained his right hip and has to stay off ice for a couple of weeks. Therefore he won't be able to take part in Skate Canada and Lalique Trophy, however he still hopes to compete at the last two events, Cup of Russia and NHK Trophy and make it into the final. Sarah Hughes has a torn muscle behind her right knee and decided to take a break from competing until the 2003 U.S. Championships. Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz withdrawed from Skate America, however they still plan to take part in the later GP events and it will make them no harm as SA was a non-scoring event for them. Bourne is suffering from achilles tendonitis and is on modified training schedule. Naomi Lang and Peter Tschernyshev also won't appear at SA as Lang has the similar problem as Bourne, she has been diagnosed with severe tendonitis to her left leg. Just as Tim Goebel, she has to stay off ice for a couple of weeks. Kristy and Kris Wirtz who are making a come back to eligible skating are also suffering from the injury curse. Kris has sprained his ankle and he has to stay off ice for a week which made them unable to compete at the SA as well. The only positive information seems to be that Michelle Kwan suddenly decided to take part in an eligible competition this season. She will replace Sarah Hughes at Skate America. |
| Kulikova and Markov are about to split 26.12.2002 Russian ice dancers, Svetlana Kulikova and Arseni Markov, coached by Tatiana Tarasova, made the decision to split because of "differences" but now suprisingly appeared at Russian Nationals. Nevertheless it doesn't mean that they will continue skating together. After the nationals, they are very likely to go to Europeans but they said that it will be their last competition together. Markov is said to team up with Natalia Romaniuta while Kulikova is said to form a team with Novikov although these are probably only rumours as his level is nowhere near hers. |
| Navka and Kostomarov lead after compulsories 26.12.2002 The Russian Nationals began today, in Kazan, with compulsory dances. Quickstep and Tango Romantica were chosen for this competition. In the absence of the reigning national and world champions, Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh, Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, coached by Alexander Zhulin, firmly lead after the first two parts of the event. The husband and wife team withdrew prior to the competition. Although they won both Cup of Russia and NHK Trophy, they were in a poor form at both of these events and hopefully they will use the time they have to practice and polish their programs. Naturally regardless of their absence, they will still make the national team and go to European and World Championships. As Eislauffan (Tatiana), our favourite skating reporter, says, Navka and Kostomarov looked secure and confident in both dances. Furthermore Roman whose skating quality has always been very poor is said to have finally made an improvement. Svetlana Kulikova and Arseni Markov are currently second after quite poor performances. The Junior Grand Prix Final champions, Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin are third after two good performances, marred only by Oksana's stumble in the Tango. Ekaterina Gvozdkova and Timur Alakshanov are fourth after two weak skates in both of which he was lacking extension. |
 |
| The champions are absent leaving the doors wide open. Photo @ Reuters |
| Slutskaya first after a clean skate 26.12.2002 After it was announced that Viktoria Volchkova has withdrawn from the Nationals due to ilness, everybody knew that Irina Slutskaya is fixed for the gold medal. She would probably win no matter what but today she showed that it's not only the name which brings her good results. It is also the ability. Irina skated a lot in ice shows and then has fallen ill which resulted in a poor form and bad performances at Cup Of Russia and NHK Trophy (similar to Lobacheva/Averbukh). But today she showed what she is capable of. Skating to "Victory" by Bond, she just hanged on to the opening triple lutz-double toeloop combination but all the other elements were executed without a problem. A double axel, a high triple flip, a difficult step sequence, partially on one foot and good, fast spins. Irina looked happy and relieved after her skate and no wonder as her recent performances were very dissapointing. Nevertheless her program still needs to be polished as there were no steps into the flip. Right behind Slute finds herself young Ludmila Nelidina. She attempted the triple lutz-triple toeloop combination but landed the second jump on two feet. The other jumps, triple flip and a double axel were executed without a problem but her spins and spirals were very weak and she still lacks presentation and carriage. Down in a dissapointing third is Elena Sokolova. If she stays on this place, she won't make the national team again. She began very well, landing the triple lutz-double toe combination (and even landed it with a triple toe at the end several times in practice!) but then came the problems. She almost hit the boards after landing the triple flip and had to make a three turn out of it and then stepped out of the double axel. Nevertheless her skating was fast and powerful and her presentation was good. Tatiana Basova is fourth after a having a clean skate, however all her jumps had shaky landings. Kristina Oblasova is down in fifth after flutzing her combination and doubling the flip. Her presentation skills were good as always though. |
| Irina Slutskaya spinning at NHK Trophy during her short program. Thank god that she has a new dress for the Russian Nationals! Photo @ Reuters |
 |
| collected in Canada and France. Their new coach Oleg Vassiliev completely changed their style and from a couple which was perceived by most to be boring, they changed into real crowd-pleasers. Both short and long programs contain complex choreography, featuring even dance holds (in the free)! Maxim had some problems with his side-by-side jumps, however if they skate well, they can easily beat Xue and Hongboa to win gold at Worlds in Washington DC. In third place suprisingly lies a young Russian couple. Julia Obertas and Aleksei Sokolov were second at Bofrost Cup and third at Cup Of Russia. Julia skated for Ukraine before (with Dmitri Palamarchuk) so they had to wait two seasons until they could compete in ISU Championships. This season they finally can go to Europeans in Malmo. This pair has an excellent skating quality, classical "Russian-style" presentation and something which gives them the edge over other teams. A throw triple flip! In fourth place there is an even bigger suprise. Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto were tenth at last year's worlds and nobody expected them to have done so much progress. However their new coach (Jan Ullmark) and new choreographer (Nikolai Morozov) seem to have done wonders for them. The Canadians placed second in Skate America, third at NHK and also claimed some more prize money by |
| 2002/2003 Grand Prix Summary - Pairs As everybody expected Xue Shen and Hongboa Zhao easily won all three events, they participated in. The maximum 24 points was gathered at Bofrost Cup and NHK Trophy while the win at Cup Of Russia earned them a lot of prize money. They even got their first 6.0, for presentation, at COR! Nevertheless the Chinese didn't seem invincible. They are still skating to their old free program from last season (Turandot) and their new short program composed to Beethoven's Last Night is perceived by many fans/observers as dissapointing and uninspiring. It seems that this year, they won't win the World Championships "no matter what". The have very strong rivals who in fact lead ahead of them coming into the final. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin have made a huge improvement this season. Just as Shen/Zhao, they claimed gold at three competitions they have taken part in. The Russian couple (also off ice) dominated Skate America, Skate Canada and Trophee Lalique, all the GP events Chinese have missed. 24 points were |
| finishing second at Skate Canada. In fifth place, coming into the final are old campaigners Maria Petrova/Aleksei Tikhonov. This season they have very demading programs. In the free they attempt 2A...3T sequence and the throw triple loop. Unfortunately they seem not to be able to skate them clean. Therefore they only managed to finish fourth at Bofrost Cup and second at COR. Some additional prize money came from their fourth place at NHK where they bombed in the free skate. The last couple to enter the final is Dorota Zagorska/Mariusz Siudek from Poland. They have made visible improvement however couldn't cope with the pressure, making lots of mistakes on their elements. For example at Cup Of Russia they had to abort a lift in their short programme (!!!) and Dorota had lots of problems with the double axel. However they landed the throw triple loop five times out of six attempts in both short and free programs! Their fourth place finish at Cup Of Russia and second place finish at NHK Trophy allowed them to squeeze in into the final and their bronze medal at Bofrost Cup earned them some more money they surely need to pay for their new part-time coach (Richard Gauthier)! Most importantly, their routines this season are much more interesting than before and for many people they are not boring anymore. Quing Pang and Jiang Tong may be considered very unlucky as they collected 14 points. The same as Petrova/Tikhonov and Zagorska/Siudek however they lost to them in the process of tie-breaking, becoming first substitutes for the final. Other couples who are worth mentioning are Sarah Abitbol/Stephane Bernardis, who finished second at Lalique Trophy but had to pull out of NHK because Sarah didn't fully recover after last year's injury, thus not making the final. Jacinthe Lariviere/Lenny Faustino presented very well constructed programs however weren't able to execute them cleanly. Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn were completely unable to take the pressure bombing at all three events with an exepction of a good free skate at Lalique. It is very hard to predict anything for the final which will take place in Sankt Petersburg at the end of February/beginning of March. The only thing which is certain is that the battle for the gold will be between Totmianina/Marinin and Shen/Zhao. And it has been proved that the Russians have the chances indeed as the Chinese placed only fourth at Hallmark Open recently. |
| Obertas/Sokolov split; Julia teams up with Slavnov Placing eigth in your first senior worlds is not a bad result at all. However Julia Obertas must think otherwise since she has decided to part ways with Alexei Sokolov, her partner. This young and exciting Russian team made it to the ISU Championships for the first time this season. Obertas had to wait two years for this opportunity since she has represented Ukraine before, together with Dmitri Palamarchuk. They split after the tragic accident at 1999 Worlds, where Dmitri fell during a lift. Rumours about Julia and Alexei not getting on very well and him "complaining and having problems" all the time have been around for quite a while now, but since their results were getting better and better, this decision is rather unexpected. Obertas/Sokolov took part in Russian Nationals for the first time in 2001 when they placed 4th. Last season they could go to Grand Prix events for the first time. They placed 5th once and 4th twice. This season they suprised everyone by performing the first throw triple flip in many years at the Nebelhorn Trophy where they took silver. They went on to win a silver and a bronze medal at Grand Prix which earned them a place in the GP Final where they placed fourth. Because of the mistakes on the side-by-side jumps by Julia at 2003 Europeans in Malmo, they "only" placed 5th earlier this year while recently it was Alexei's stumbles which made them slip down to 8th overall (from 4th in short) at 2003 Worlds in Washington DC. Obertas is going to team up with Sergei Slavnov (Junior World silver medalist last year) while Sokolov's and Karbovksaya's future plans remain uknown. It has to be said that Julia was the one usually making the mistakes, although she seemed to be more talented. In case of Karbovskaya/Slavnov things looked completely different. They were Junior World silver medalists last year, losing gold only by the skin of their teeth. This year however, they managed to place only 5th because Julia Karbovskaya failed all her side-by-side jumps while Sergei was clean on his elements. Furthermore she seemed to have outgrown him. Therefore it seems to be a perfect move for Slavnov, however the feeling is a bit colder as far as Obertas is concerned. Sergei is not very strong on the lifts and although he seems to be consistent with his jumps, Alexei wasn't bad in that field either. Nevertheless if they couldn't get along well together, such decision seems natural. Although there are rumours about them switching to Moskvina, Obertas/Slavnov will probably stay with their current coach, Nikolai Velikov. You would assume that at some point, they will take part in the Russian Federation's test and its result will determine to which competitions they will be sent next season. |
| Sylwia Nowak pregnant with junior ice dancer Sylwia Nowak is expecting a baby. The proud father is Marcin Trebacki, Polish junior ice dancer who recently placed 26th at World Junior Championships in Ostrava together with his partner Paulina Urban. This was the reason behind the withdrawal of the Polish team from the World Championships in Washington D.C. Sylwia was already pregnant in Malmo where Nowak/Kolasinski placed 9th and by the time Worlds started, her pregnancy was already too advanced to allow her to compete. Now Nowak is preparing for her new role off ice and it has been announced that they will definitely miss next season, because she will be taking care of her child and recovering after the pregnancy. Since she had problems with keeping the right weight before (she lost several kilos after 98/99 season), getting back into shape certainly won't come easy for her. The future of Nowak/Kolasinski is uknown. They said that they will miss the next season but want to come back in the following one (04/05). However Sebastian has also said that if the results are still going to be so bad, he is going to give it up. Since they failed to move up the rankings this season and yet again showed no signs of real improvement, this probably is the end of their competetive career. |
 |
| The phantom on ice. The baby must be startled! Photo@AP |