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Joubert upsets Plushenko in men's skating
Brian Joubert became the first Frenchman in 40 years to win the European men's figure skating title when he upset world champion Evgeni Plushenko on Thursday.
The last French champion, Alain Calmat won consecutive titles in 1963-64. Joubert also became the first non-Russian to win since 1996.
"It was a big surprise," Joubert said. "Very big. At this moment I haven't realized what is happened to me. It will be tomorrow I will realize that. It's wonderful to recapture the title for France after 40 years."
Joubert, who won bronze and silver medals the previous two years, completed two quads and six triples in his program to "The Matrix" soundtrack. He scored from 5.7 to 5.9 for technical merit, and 5.5 to 5.8 for presentation.
"I tried to be Neo from the Matrix movie and that's hard," Joubert said. "I try to look like Neo, and I took five or six moves out of the movie."
Joubert knew he put pressure on Plushenko with his clean routine, skating before the Russian.
"It was very difficult for him because I did a very good program," Joubert said. "So there was a lot of pressure."
Plushenko was seeking his fourth European title but had an off night. Although he started brilliantly with a quad-triple-double, he sprawled on a first attempt at a 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 missed his first two tries but came back later in the program to improvise a triple axel-triple toe loop-double loop. But it wasn't enough.
He also fell attempting a triple flip, but still had marks of 5.4 to 5.8 for technique and up to 5.9 for presentation.
"I feel fine, I am ready for losing ¡ª 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."
Joubert said the reason for him winning was simple: "I did two quads."
Russia's Ilya Klimkin came third for his first medal in major European competition.
The women start their competition Friday, with Russia's Elena Sokolova (news - web sites) looking to take advantage of the absence of Irina Slutskaya (news - web sites).
Sokolova was second last year, and appears set to replace five-time champion Slutskaya, who has not competed so far this season due to a handful of health problems. Slutskaya's participation at the worlds in Dortmund, Germany, in March is also uncertain.
Earlier Thursday, Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov moved a step closer to their first European ice dance title following an original program filled with hypnotic movements.
The Russian couple performed to contrasting rhythms in the songs "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Rock Around the Clock," and earned marks between 5.5 and 5.9 for required elements, and 5.7s to 5.9s for presentation. The ice dance competition ends Friday with the free program. |
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