For the Chinese couple, Shen Xu - Zhao Hongbo, Japan is the promised land. In 2002, at the championship of the planet in Nagano, skaters from the Middle Kingdom became world champions for the first time, and five years later in Tokyo they won this title for the third time. Together they ride since 1992 - partner 33, and partner 28.
We give tribute to veterans: in this form, an anchor pulls to the bottom not so much a load of years, but an injury. Professional sores did not escape the first numbers of the Chinese team. In 2005, the couple withdrew from the World Cup due to the fact that Zhao Hongbo damaged the Achilles tendon. And six months before the Olympics in Turin, he completely broke this Achilles, losing training for several months.
It was impossible to watch Zhao Hongbo without compassion on the ice of the Turin skating rink “Palawela”. Like a soldier, charred by war, he cherishes his only leg. The load on the sore foot made itself felt even when performing the todes, not to mention landing after jumping. That is why, at the end of the short program, the athlete did not hide his joy in the current “world”: it seems he recovered and ceased to be a weak link in a well-coordinated duet.
This season, the illustrious couple did not lose a single start, and yesterday's short rental became another application for success. Parallel jump, triple rittberger surge, fourth level rotation - all at excellent speed, with good amplitude. During the support, Shen Xu and Zhao Hongbo even allowed themselves to “play with muscles”, despising the strength of the grip.
The second Chinese tandem, Qing Pan - Jian Ton, who took third place, came forward to become leaders. But Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, considered the favorites, unexpectedly for many fell back to the tenth line. The silver medalists of the Olympics were previously considered a kind of machine for obtaining medals, but in Japan this mechanism failed. The couple made mistakes in support, in rotation, and in addition got 2 points of a fine for an element not permitted by the ISU rules. The second position was taken by the champions of Europe 2007 Alena Savchenko and Robin Sholkov - their performance looked almost flawless.
Alas, the same could not be said about the Russian skaters. The final performances of 22 duets, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, did not avoid flaws, performing a triple sheepskin coat, ejection, support. It’s another matter that the judges didn’t punish them so cruelly - the residents of St. Petersburg clearly did not deserve the 11th place behind the leaders by more than 14 points. But with the ministers of sports Themis, the vice-champions of Europe have a long lawsuit. It is no coincidence that Maria and Alexei dropped the phrase on the eve of their trip to Japan: they say they don’t need to worry much about them, they know the backstage world of figure skating as their five fingers.
In Tokyo, our most striking choreography duet performed for its fans, for itself. However, to finish his career on a high note failed. Once Alexei Tikhonov said these words: "The first couple of the country should not be mistaken." Looking ahead, we say: perhaps not only the aggravated injury of Tikhonov, but also the burden of responsibility became the reason that we did not see everyone's favorites in the free program.
The shaft of the fallen Russian banner was picked up by Yuko Kavaguchi and Alexander Smirnov, who showed the fourth result in the short program. On the ice, Yuko and Sasha look like "a guy with an athletic figure and a girl, a timid soul." But in fact, the partner, as in the famous poem, has a flint character: she fights to the end and saves trips from seemingly ruined elements. By the way, Japanese girls are snapped up not only by Russians, but also by Americans - Ren Inue has been together with John Baldwin for nine years.
The international duo Kawaguchi - Smirnov was formed spontaneously. The guys managed to take a prize at the Russian Grand Prix in Moscow, the partners did not participate in the national championship due to an injury, they got into the national team “on the flag”. When performing an arbitrary composition, the smiling Yuko, as she could, smoothed out the impression of obvious flaws and even managed to raise the hall, but this was a tribute to her compatriot. Numerous mistakes did not hide from the eyes of the referee - ninth place.
Nearby were Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, who had recently come under the care of Oleg Vasiliev. Skaters with teachers have a lot of work ahead of them, but it’s hard for the fans to break the habit of rewards. I want medals as quickly as possible ...
As a result, no one managed to get closer to the prize troika, in which only minor changes occurred. Is that the Ukrainian couple Stanislav Morozov - Tatyana Volosozhar jumped above her head, taking fourth position. Apparently, ex-partner Alena Savchenko is irresistibly drawn to her ex.
Having noted Chinese expansion as a fact, we will take off our hat to the world champions. As Tatyana Tarasova did, she greeted the winners of the Grand Prix finals. Shen Xu and Zhao Hongbo became a real era, brought a lot of new things and were worthy of their great predecessors. We know their names: Rodnina and Zaitsev, Mishkutenok and Dmitriev, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. Who will be next? An issue of concern.
Olga GONCHAROVA