World Figure Skating Championships Lausanne, 1997 - Report

Pairs

by Tatjana Flade

For the first time after 15 years a German couple won the gold medal at a World Championship. After Marika Kilius/Hans-Jürgen Bäumler and Sabine Baess/Thassilo Thierbach, Mandy Wötzel/Ingo Steuer climbed on the highest step of the podium Wednesday evening. They barely smiled, all the tension wasn't gone yet. After the performance and after they saw the marks, the Germans didn't believe they made it, "I thought, we're second - again", Ingo said. The reality of the victory caught up with him only slowly, when he stood on the podium. The smiles came a little bit later, at the press conference. Wötzel/Steuer looked disappointed after their performance, in spite of only one major mistake - Mandy had fallen on the double axel. "But I would have felt worse if I hadn't tried it and if I had singled it", she said. Apart from that mistake, the free program to a romantic music piece, called "In memory", was fine, contained clean triple side by side toe-loops, a triple thrown toe-loop, triple twist and a beautiful thrown double axel in the last minute of the program. 23-year old Mandy and her partner already were in the lead after a good short, where only their side by side spin was out of unison. "A dream has come true", said a smiling Mandy later. "When I teamed up with Ingo five years ago, I never thought, we could come so far. I just hoped, we'd make the German team for international competitions." Nervousness took it's toll at the pairs' competition in Lausanne. Not only Wötzel/Steuer had a mistake.

Andrei Bushkov fell heavily on the triple toe, which cost him and partner Marina Eltsova the gold medal. The defending World Champions had to sertle for silver this time, and weren't quite satisfied with the judging. Bushkov pointed out that they included two triple thrown jumps in their routine. The Russians were second after the short, where Andrei's toe was shaky.

The bronze medal went to Oksana Kazakova/Artur Dmitriev, also from Russia. Sixth after the short - where Artur had doubled the toe-loop - they pulled up to third with a good performance - but Artur doubled that toe again- That was the only flaw in an otherwise clean and fascinating program to Händel's "Passacalia" which received standing ovations from the spectators. "After the short, I told myself that I'm an idiot", Artur said. "It was mentally hard for us to come back." Oksana smiled at him. "I believed in Artur", she pointed out at the press conference. But after the short she was really mad at her partner.

For Elena Berezhnaya/Anton Sikhuralidze, their first Worlds as a couple ended in disaster. Third after the short - where they'd shown the cleanest performance of the day - the fell apart in the long. Anton fell on the triple toe-loop, double axel and threw Elena badly, so she fell on the two thrown jumps. The pressure they'd put on themselves after the short was too high, but the future waits for this young and otherwise strong couple.
Jenni Meno/Todd Sand, last year's bronze medalists, dropped from fourth to fifth place, after Sand doubled and singled the side by side jumps. The Americans were very disappointed with their performance. The free went well for their compatriots Kyoko Ina/Jason Dungjen, who moved up to rank four. Dungjen only had two-footed the double axel. But the couple is very technical and doesn't focus so much on artistic impression.

Copyright © March 20, 1997 by Tatjana Flade

back  top