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Russians in charge at the rink

Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia perform their dance at the Grand Prix figure skating final in St Petersburg, Russia, on Friday. PHOTO: REUTERS

Russia underlined its world figure skating superiority on Friday by dominating all four events at the Grand Prix final.

World and European champion Irina Slutskaya rebounded from a somewhat shaky performance in the short program earlier in the day to take a narrow lead going into yesterday's second free skate.

Eighteen-year-old American Sasha Cohen, who was leading after the short program, dropped to second after she fell on the landing off a triple loop.

"Well, it definitely wasn't my best performance," said Cohen of her long program.

She is the only American competing in St. Petersburg after Michelle Kwan chose not to attend the final.

"I felt a bit tired at the end of my free skate because I'm not used to skating two programs in one day," she added. "But it's a learning experience. I'm sure I'll do better in tomorrow's free program, which counts for 50 percent."

Slutskaya, however, was not too sympathetic to her younger rival. "I have a lot more experience than her," said the 24-year-old, who also finished second at last year's Winter Olympics.

"I think this is my sixth Grand Prix final and in four of them we have competed under the same format, so I'm used to it."

Slutskaya has won three of those finals. Another Russian Viktoria Volchkova is in third place after finishing third in both programs on Friday.

What a performance

In the final, all skaters perform two long programs, one on Friday, which counts for 30 percent, and a different one yesterday. A short program is worth 20 percent of the total score.

European men's champion and Olympic silver medallist Yevgeny Plushenko dazzled the home crowd with two fine performances.

"Actually, it was very difficult to skate to today, especially in the afternoon session," said the 20-year-old from St Petersburg. "I was really short of breath and I don't know why. But I'm very happy with my free skate," he added.

"I did 100 per cent what I had planned to do tonight. I did two triple axels, I did a quad-triple-triple combination. I didn't press myself to the limit, I did everything I wanted to do. Tomorrow will be different."

The Russian men occupied all three top places, with Ilya Klimkin and Alexander Abt pushing European silver medallist Brian Joubert of France into fourth spot.

In pairs competition, European champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia held a comfortable lead over China's world champions Xue Shen and compatriot Hongbo Zhao going into yesterday's free skate after winning both the short and long programs on Friday.

China's error

The Chinese duo wanted to win Friday's free skate after making a small mistake with their side-by-side spins in the short program, but Zhao crashed out on a triple toe-loop, ending the pair's hopes for high marks.

Another Russian couple, former European and world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, are in third place.

Russia's Olympic champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze are not competing this season, while Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who were awarded a duplicate Olympic gold medal following a judging scandal in Salt Lake City, have retired from amateur competition.
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