Totmianina & Marinin
win Gold at Europeans,
Plushenko takes Silver,
Sokolova wins Bronze

Tatiana Totmianina & Maxim Marinin

February 4, 2004

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin won their third straight European Figure Skating Championships at Budapest, Hungary.

Totmianina and Marinin, skating to “Art On Ice” by Hungarian musician Edwin Marton gave Russia its ninth straight European pair championship, and it was the 37th time in 40 years a Russian or Soviet pair has won.

It was the second time Totmianina and Marinin skated to “Art On Ice”. Injuries have prevented the pair from maximum training, and they haven’t had the opportunity to perform the program as frequently as they would have liked.

“It was a great pleasure to skate the new program. It's more demanding emotionally and the opposite of our former (The Cotton Club) program,” Totmianina said. “The Cotton Club” featured a light-hearted skating program.

They had four 5.9s for presentation and their technical marks ranged from 5.5-5.9.

Totmianina was nursing a knee injury that forced them to downgrade a triple jump to a double but some innovative positions in lifts highlighted their program. They completed a triple-double toe loop combination, a triple twist, a throw triple loop and Salchow as well as two one-armed Lasso lifts.

“In spite of Tatiana's injury we showed a very good program,” Marinin said.

Totmianina and Marinin led after the short program. They were impressive in their program skated to “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rakhmaninov.

Totmianina was pleased with their performance.

“I think we skated one of our best short programs this season. We felt good out there. When the competition starts, I’m totally focused on it and so I almost forgot about the pain in my (left) knee. But of course, I still feel it. It’s sometimes even worse than at Russian Nationals. There was no time for rest after Russian Nationals. I had some treatment for the knee, but it didn’t really help,” Totmianina said.

Silver for Evgeni

Evgeni Plushenko, the defending World Champion, was upset in the European championships at Budapest, Hungary.

Evgeni Plushenko

Plushenko was first after the short program and appeared headed for his fourth European championship. However Plushenko had a rare off night to open the door for France’s Brian Joubert to get the victory.

Plushenko, who skated after Joubert, began his program with a brilliant quad-triple double toe loop. But he fell on his first triple axel and popped the second one to only a single.

“After I did the combination I just wanted to do two triple axels,” Plushenko said.

He changed his program to successfully land a triple axel-triple toe loop-double loop. But his earlier miscues kept his technical marks down to 5.4-5.8. He earned up to 5.9 for presentation.

"I feel fine, I am ready for losing -- this is just sport,” Plushenko said. “I don't know what happened, maybe it was psychological. I still look forward to going to the world championships. I will skate better.”

Plushenko earned the lead after the short by landing a quad and performing an upbeat tango routine that pleased the crowd. He earned a 6.0 for his interpretation of the Tango and Flamenco.

Plushenko has been nursing a torn meniscus in one knee and the other has been inflamed in the past.

“I didn’t do a quad-triple (toeloop) combination (in the short), only a quad-double combination. It wasn’t the best but it was OK,” Plushenko said. “I’m in good shape although my knees hurt. I don’t know how I saved this jump,” he said, referring to his quadruple toe loop. “I didn’t expect that (problem).”

Bronze for Sokolova

Elena Sokolova performed a sensational free skate and climbed all the way from sixth to earn the Bronze Medal at the European Championships at Budapest, Hungary.

Elena Sokolova

Sokolova was sixth after the short program but her second place finish in the free skate saw her jump over three other skaters to finish third behind Hungary’s Julia Sebestyen and the Ukraine’s Elena Liashenko. Sokolova finished ahead of Liashenko in the free skate but couldn’t make up the difference to earn her second straight Silver Medal.

Skating to "Notre Dame de Paris" Sokolova landed a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination in the opening seconds. The followed that with a triple flip and combination triple-Salchow-triple toeloop. She performed an ambitious program that also included a triple loop and extraordinary high double Axel.

The marks, as high as 5.8 for technical merit and 5.9 for presentation, pleased Sokolova. "I went out and really fought, and that was very important to me," Sokolova said.

"It was perfect, the best," Sokolova said of her performance. "I was not angry, but I wasn’t satisfied with myself (after placing sixth in the short program). I don’t care about the result now, I’m very happy that I didn’t just skate well but the best today. I had nothing to lose. I went out and really fought, and that was very important to me."

Sokolova’s next competition will be the World Championships in late March. She won the silver medal at Worlds last year.