The 2008 Figure Skating European Championships began today in Zagreb.

The first competition was the compulsory dance (yankee polka) for the Ice Dancing competition...the results were:

1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA
41.25
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS
40.25
3 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS
37.37
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
36.87
5 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA
34.58
6 Sinead KERR / John KERR GBR
33.55
7 Alexandra ZARETSKI / Roman ZARETSKI ISR
33.12
8 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE
33.02
9 Anna ZADOROZHNIUK / Sergei VERBILLO UKR
31.28
10 Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE ITA
30.97
11 Pernelle CARRON / Mathieu JOST FRA
30.15
12 Ekaterina RUBLEVA / Ivan SHEFER RUS
29.18 12
13 Alla BEKNAZAROVA / Vladimir ZUEV UKR
28.90
14 Katherine COPELY / Deividas STAGNIUNAS LTU
28.81
15 Barbora SILNA / Dmitri MATSJUK AUT
26.44
16 Christina BEIER / William BEIER GER
25.97
17 Anastasia GREBENKINA / Vazgen AZROJAN ARM
25.41
18 Kamila HAJKOVA / David VINCOUR CZE
24.88
19 Phillipa TOWLER-GREEN / Phillip POOLE GBR
24.27
20 Joanna BUDNER / Jan MOSCICKI POL
22.47
21 Leonie KRAIL / Oscar PETER SUI
21.50
22 Krisztina BARTA / Adam TOTH HUN
21.17
23 Ksenia SHMIRINA / Egor MAISTROV BLR
20.25
24 Ina DEMIREVA / Juri KURAKIN BUL
17.31
25 Kristina KIUDMAA / Aleksei TROHLEV EST
15.26
26 Nadine AHMED / Bruce PORTER AZE
15.15

Here's the top 3 performances
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-3g7Es4do
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8qnk6qAqY
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=wHdv4QCPZz0


Later in the evening the short program of the pairs took place...the standing:

1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
70.36
2 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS
62.73
3 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
61.29
4 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
61.25
5 Arina USHAKOVA / Sergei KAREV RUS
49.43
6 Mari VARTMANN / Florian JUST GER
47.23
7 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR
46.05
8 Melodie CHATAIGNER / Medhi BOUZZINE FRA
41.97
9 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL
41.23
10 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA
40.08
11 Laura MAGITTERI / Ondrej HOTAREK ITA
39.54
12 Ekaterina SOSINOVA / Fedor SOKOLOV ISR
38.06
13 Ekaterina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN UKR
36.68
14 Amy IRELAND / Michael BAHORIC CRO
29.50
15 Ariel Fay GAGNON / Chad TSAGRIS GRE
20.92

Andrea,
How are you doing? I was just about to start a thread for US Nationals, Europeans, and Worlds. Below is a television schedule listing for the US.
Europeans aren't going to be shown on tv here until February 3rd. Thanks for the updates. I hope Carolina Kostner wins. She's such a beautiful skater. I've seen Faiella & Scali perform before. They are a strong team and should do well. As for the pairs, do you think anyone can beat the Germans?

The "dream" would be getting the bronze medal..but performing well in the next 2 routines and confirming the 4th place would still be good (Italian couples seem to have the tendency to mess up things with various falls in recent Championships).
Faiella & Scali seemed happy after their polka performance.
I think there was some disappointment for Cappellini/LaNotte score as they were hoping for a couple of positions better




I think they're the firm favourites. It's for them to lose. The race for the other 2 positions seem pretty close though

The German pair won easily the Pairs competition.


1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
202.39
2 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS
169.41
3 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
167.25
4 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
163.43
5 Arina USHAKOVA / Sergei KAREV RUS
130.34
6 Stacey KEMP / David KING GBR
129.13
7 Mari VARTMANN / Florian JUST GER
119.86
8 Melodie CHATAIGNER / Medhi BOUZZINE FRA
116.48
9 Dominika PIATKOWSKA / Dmitri KHROMIN POL
112.96
10 Marika ZANFORLIN / Federico DEGLI ESPOSTI ITA
112.11
11 Laura MAGITTERI / Ondrej HOTAREK ITA
109.88
12 Ekaterina SOSINOVA / Fedor SOKOLOV ISR
104.40
13 Ekaterina KOSTENKO / Roman TALAN UKR
103.06
14 Amy IRELAND / Michael BAHORIC CRO
78.44
15 Ariel Fay GAGNON / Chad TSAGRIS GRE
72.07

Interesting result in the male short program...Tomas Verner leads Joubert and Lambiel.
Good afternoon for the Swedish guys.

1 Tomas VERNER CZE
79.03
2 Brian JOUBERT FRA
75.25
3 Stephane LAMBIEL SUI
71.78
4 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL
66.33
5 Kristoffer BERNTSSON SWE
65.62
6 Sergei VORONOV RUS
64.26
7 Gregor URBAS SLO
63.43
8 Adrian SCHULTHEISS SWE
63.40
9 Andrei LUTAI RUS
63.04
10 Alban PREAUBERT FRA
60.54
11 Yannick PONSERO FRA
59.28
12 Sergei DAVYDOV BLR
58.63
13 Karel ZELENKA ITA
56.29
14 Michal BREZINA CZE
54.13
15 Konstantin TUPIKOV POL
52.08
16 Javier FERNANDEZ ESP
51.94
17 Clemens BRUMMER GER
51.26
18 Alexandr KAZAKOV BLR
51.16
19 Manuel KOLL AUT
51.12
20 Paolo BACCHINI ITA
50.90
21 Peter LIEBERS GER
50.47
22 Vitali SAZONETS UKR
50.31
23 Moris PFEIFHOFER SUI
49.84
24 Ruben BLOMMAERT BEL
47.38
25 Elliot HILTON GBR
46.26
26 Danil PRIVALOV AZE
45.93
27 Mikko MINKKINEN FIN
44.66
28 Josip GLUHAK CRO
44.52
29 Alper UCAR TUR
41.10
30 Maxim SHIPOV ISR
40.98
31 Naiden BORICHEV BUL
40.02
32 Luka CADEZ SLO
38.36
33 Igor MACYPURA SVK
38.30
34 Tigran VARDANJAN HUN
35.04
35 Zoltan KELEMEN ROU
34.82

Verner confirms his lead in the male competition. Lambiel passed Joubert for the silver medal.
Lambiel's artistic prestantion was very good (and the best of the night).

In the original dance, Delobel/Schoenfelder confirmed their first position followed by the 2 Russian couples. I didn't see the French couple and I was curious on what they did in terms of artistic presentation.

Andrea,
Do you know if Stephane Lambiel completed a triple axel? He's been having so much trouble with it and has been re-learning his technique and timing. I'm a bit surprised in Verner's win but not really. He's been pushing them the past couple of years and with Stephane and Brian competing against each other, Tomas slipped by both of them!

SimonTexas,

he still had problems with the Axel..
the description of the performances (and mistakes) can be seen on ISU website (no video on youtube yet)
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/...ws-item,00.html


this afternoon, the female short program...good performances by Korpi and Lepisto...Kostner didn't skate fully clean: she topped the others, but just by a small margin. Meier had her trouble too and she's behind the Finnish girls. However it's very close and the battle for the medals will be interesting tomorrow.

As for Ice Dancing, a really pleasant night...Domnina/Shalabin with a very strong Waltz passed the French couple.

I heard commentators on Eurosport during the female competition this afternoon mentioning the US nationals and how some of the young girls did very well

Andrea,
The US Nationals were C.R.A.Z.Y. this year! The only constant was in Ice Dance. Tanith Belbin & Benjamin Agosto won their 5th straight US title (216.07 points). They have to be the favorites at the 2008 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. Meryl Davis and Charlie White finished second (206.82) and Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre finished third (187.94). All three teams are going to Worlds.

The young girls definitely did well. In fact, 3 of the top 7 are too young to go to Worlds. The women's Worlds team will consist of bronze medalist Ashley Wagner (188.56), 5th place Beatrisa Liang (164.87) and 7th place Kimmie Meisner. The 6th place competitor Katrina Hacker is old enough but the US committee decided to go with Meisner because she has way more international experience. Meisner is lucky lucky! The three young ladies that cannot go to Worlds are gold medalist Mirai Nagasu (190.41), silver medalist Rachael Flatt (188.73), and 4th place finisher Caroline Zhang.

The pairs was won by first-time senior competitors Keauna McLaughlin & Rockne Brubaker (190.74). Keauna is too young to compete at Worlds also. Former national winners Rena Inoue and John Baldwin finished second (183.17). After their freeskate John got on one knee and proposed marriage to Rena. She was shocked as was everyone in the arena. Defending champions Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski grabbed the bronze medal (175.07). Only 2nd and 3rd place pairs teams are going to Worlds.

The men's event was historical. Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir tied. Yes, that's right.
1st (tie) Evan Lysacek* and Johnny Weir (244.77)
*Lysacek wins gold because he won the freeskate by 1.35 points; which of course, was the lead Weir had after the short program.
3rd Stephen Carriere (228.06)
Lysacek, Weir and Carriere all will go to the World Championships.
4th Jeremy Abbott (221.85)
5th Ryan Bradley (221.31)
6th Scott Smith (210.55)

You can see all the videos and photo galleries for the US Nationals and International competitions at icenetwork.com
~Simon

Thanks Simon. Very interesting.
The young girls are certainly on fire. It will be interesting to see Wagner and Liang at the World Champs.
wow, it couldn't have been closer in the male competition!

On Saturday the final competition at the Euro Champs was won by Carolina Kostner. Sarah Meier skated the best program of the afternoon and got silver medal. Laura Lepisto from Finland won the bronze.
Last year Meier lost to Kostner in the long program, this time she lost because of the short program.
Finally a good championships from Julia Sebestyen: 4th place

Andrea,
I saw the European Championships this past Sunday. Carolina did a great job winning her second championship. They didn't even show Julia Sebestyen's long program, and she's a former champion. I did see the two Finnish ladies and Sarah Meier. Meier did have a good program too.

As for the men, I had no idea Brian Joubert had been hospitalized for a muscle virus. I wasn't able to keep up with Grand Prix events this year as much as in the past. I felt bad for Kevin van der Perrin. He looked really good in his costume but apparently his hip is injured. And my #1 Crush Stephane Lambiel has a great program. I loved it very much. Hopefully he can pull it together for Worlds. I think this is going to be one of the best men's competitions ever at Worlds.
~Simon