| | Associated Press
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario -- Three-time world men's
champion Alexei Yagudin and the world's top-ranked ice dancers
Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat held their challengers at
bay Thursday, the first day of competition at the Skate Canada
Grand Prix figure skating event.
|  | | Todd Eldredge couldn't match Alexei Yagudin's quadruple top jump, and was second in the short program. |
Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the 1998 and 1999
world champions, displayed the form that often eluded them last
season to seize first place in the pairs competition.
Their short program was a thing of beauty, while Yagudin
endured a few beastly moments.
The Russian hung on by his toenails to stay upright on the
landings of three required jumps and turned out of his exit on
another. Still, his barely-there quadruple toe jump trumped
American Todd Eldredge's nonexistent one.
"The ice is crunchy. I'm a heavy lander and it breaks
away," explained Yagudin. "I felt good in the warm-up, but when
I'm a little bit nervous in the competition, I lean forward on
the jumps. The ice breaks and I can't glide out."
Eldredge, the 1996 world champ who has returned to top-level competition this season with an eye on the 2002 Olympics,
skated confidently, showing good control on his three triple
jumps. He scored three first-place votes to Yagudin's six.
Japan's Takeshi Honda, who landed a quad toe loop, but
faltered on two triple jumps, was solidly in third going into the men's final Saturday.
Russia's Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, who withdrew from the
2000 World Championships after she tested positive for a banned
stimulant, impressed in their return to competition.
"We worked really hard for this, to skate everything clean,
and it's a new program," said Berezhnaya, who served a
three-month suspension for the doping infraction she attributed
to an ingredient in a bronchitis medication.
The defending Skate Canada champion added, "We have to go
back twice as strong. It's nice to be back, but it's very hard,
we have to prove ourselves."
Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who won Skate
America gold last week, stood second after a near perfect
performance to a sultry rendition of Come Rain or Come Shine
that brought the 5,500 fans to their feet.
Reigning world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov,
of Russia, whose program lacked spark, were third.
French ice dancers Anissina and Peizerat garnered first
place votes across the board for their compulsory dance, the
Rhumba, in the opening segment of their three-part event.
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski of Israel, and Ukraine's
Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov are second and third going
into the original dance Friday.
The women's event, featuring the world's top two skaters,
Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya, gets underway Friday.
| |
ALSO SEE
Skate Canada results
Six world champions go for Skate Canada gold
|
