Cohen edges out favourite

A dazzling Sacha Cohen of the USA laid down the gauntlet by beating Russian favourite Irina Slutskaya in the ladies short dance on Tuesday. Cohen scored 66.73 points to edge out her rival by just 0.03 points ahead of Thursday's free dance final. Japan's S

Slutskaya is unlikely to get too worried about her chances of helping Russia to become the first nation to sweep all four figure skating titles at the Games as the lead held by Cohen is negligible under the new cumulative-points scoring system.

"I am happy. I skated well. This is a competition and sometimes things don't go as you'd like them to," Slutskaya said.

FIGURE SKATING 2006 Torino 2006 Ladies - Short Irina Slutskaya

Image credit: Reuters

Torino 2006

Arakawa gold gives hope

24/02/2006 at 09:57

Cohen, silver medallist behind Slutskaya at last year's world championships, looked nervous as she skated out to perform the last short programme of a long evening and hardly acknowledged the crowd, thick with U.S. flags.

Once she had landed her first two jumps performed to a medley of Russian folk music, she started smiling, when she landed the next one, her shoulders relaxed and she swung through the rest of her routine with ease.

When she finished, she punched the air and cried, "Right on!" before skating around the rink to receive deafening applause.

As she saw her results flash up, it gradually dawned on her that she had scored high enough to challenge the top field.

When she was announced as being in first place, she leapt in the air with one arm raised, a huge smile across her face.

FIGURE SKATING 2006 Torino 2006 Ladies - Short Sacha Cohen

Image credit: Reuters

Sporting a sparkling catsuit, Slutskaya was the 18th out of 29 skaters to perform in front of the judges and her dramatic routine to Liszt's Totentanz remained the benchmark for most of the evening until Cohen squeezed past her.

The Russian executed a series of soaring jumps and artistic spins to draw loud cheers from the crowd and will fancy her chances of overhauling Cohen on Thursday as she will be the last competitor to take to the ice.

Torino 2006

Arakawa stuns Slutskaya and Cohen

23/02/2006 at 22:15

Torino 2006

Cohen maintains composure

23/02/2006 at 17:55

Torino 2006

Target: Topple Slutskaya

21/02/2006 at 17:52