Plushenko pulls it off
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ByEurosport
Published 25/03/2004 at 17:19 GMT
Yevgeny Plushenko was his brilliant self again with scintillating free skating on his way to a third men's world title on Thursday. European champion Brian Joubert of France finished second with home-country favourite Stefan Lindemann of Germany taking br
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Plushenko, who lost his European crown to Joubert with a wobbly performance last month in Budapest, survived a fright when he fell with a few minutes remaining but he had by then superbly mastered all the difficulties in his programme.
The judges did not sanction him for his stumble, giving him marks from 5.8 to 5.9 for technical merit, and paid tribute to a graceful performance with four perfect 6.0s for presentation.
France's Joubert at least confirmed his status as Plushenko's most dangerous rival with the silver medal while local hope Stefan Lindemann delighted the Dortmund crowd with an unexpected bronze.
The 21-year-old Plushenko started off with his signature quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop-double loop and followed up with a quadruple toeloop and a triple-double combination, all beautifully executed.
Skating to a special composition by Hungarian Edwin Marton in tribute to Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, he continued with five more crisp triples before slightly spoiling what would have been a perfect display with his fall.
The 2001 and 2003 champion, who has had problems with both knees and faces surgery at the end of the season, captured first place on the scorecards of all nine judges.
Joubert relied on the 'Matrix' theme that brought him luck in Budapest and made no major error but could not match Plushenko's acrobatics and elegance.
Lindemann, who had entered the Dortmund festival dreaming of a place in a top 10, became the first German skater to win a medal in the men's competition since Norbert Schramm took silver in 1983 in Helsinki.
ICE DANCING
Russians Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov dazzled judges with a superb original dance routine at the world figure skating championships on Thursday. The dynamic European champions enter Friday's free skate programme as the ice dancers to beat in Dortmund.
Skating with skill and originality to a selection of blues and rock n' roll music, the Russians earned top marks from judges, including a perfect 6.0 for presentation.
Bulgaria's Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski, the silver-medallists at last month's European championships, finished second place while Ukrainian Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov, the European bronze medallists, were third.
If the top three remain the same after Friday's free dance, it would be an identical podium from the European Championships in Budapest.
The ice dancing competition reaches a conclusion on Friday with the free dance programme LIVE at 18:30 CET on eurosport.com and Eurosport TV!
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