China's Zhangs lose to German pair, Kostner leads women

GOTHENBURG, Sweden: Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy struck pairs gold as Europe dominated the second day of the World Figure skating championships here on Wednesday.

Two-time European champion Carolina Kostner grabbed pole position after the women's short program ahead of Japanese duo Mao Asada and Yukari Nakano.

And Savchenko and Szolkowy ensured that the pairs title returned to Europe after being won by Chinese couples for the past two years.

Despite a less than perfect free skate to L'Oiseau from Cirque du Soleil, they held on to claim gold ahead of China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, who had led the Germans after the short program. Canada's Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison took bronze.

"It wasn't perfect but in the end it was enough," said Szolkowy, 28, who teamed up with Ukrainian-born Savchenko, 24, five years ago.

Savchenko and Szolkowy, bronze medalists last year, become the first Germans to win the title since their coach Ingo Steuer won pairs gold with Mandy Wotzel in 1997.

Savchenko said, on getting level 4 for nearly all elements: "We have worked a lot on that, after each competition we worked at our levels. Ingo always tried to make us get level 4 for everything."

And Szolkowy added on the fall on the Salchow: "We don't think about the points when we have done a mistake as in the system as a Salchow can be as valuable as a spin. Every element is important. (On the result) It feels good, it feels better than yesterday."

"He (Steuer) means everything to us. He's not just a coach he's like a mother and a friend."

Zhang and Zhang, the 2006 world runners-up and Olympic silver medalists, lost out because of errors with Dan singling her axel at the beginning of their program to "The Myth" soundtrack.

Dan said: "We made mistakes on two of our jumps, we really regret that we were not able to skate our best tonight."

The Germans scored 202.86 points, with the Chinese earning 197.82.

Dube and Davison achieved the second highest marks for the free skate to move up from fourth after the short program for their first podium finish at a major competition with 192.78.

China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian, the 2006 champions and runners-up last year, finished fifth.

Earlier Kostner put herself in position to become the first Italian woman to win the world title.

Wearing a black one-piece combination, the 21-year-old from Bolzano looked confident and at ease as, despite a wobble on her triple lutz, she hit all her required elements during her program to the music "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors.

She scored a total of 64.28 points for the highly original programme, to put her 0.18 ahead of Asada with Nakano, 3.18pts behind the leader.

"I'm not really surprised. I skated to a beautiful choreography, which required a lot of work and thought," explained Kostner.

"My little error on the lutz was due to the fact that I was in too much of a hurry, but the level of the pirouettes and sequences are good."

Asada, 17, gave a flawless presentation to Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra by Jean-Claude Petit, and warned she could do better in Thursday's free skating final.

AFP

(China Daily 03/21/2008 page24)