Yagudin and Goebel Lead Men, Chinese Close in On Pairs Title

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Yagudin and Goebel Lead Men, Chinese Close in On Pairs Title

Olympic bronze medallists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo moved closer towards China's first pairs gold on the opening day of the world figure skating championships in Nagano, Japan on Monday.

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Chinese Pair Listed Top In World Figure Skating Champ

Shen and Zhao moved closed to China's first pair

Olympic bronze medallists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo moved closer towards China's first pairs gold on the opening day of the world figure skating championships in Nagano, Japan on Monday.

In the absence of the joint Olympic pairs champions the title is there for the taking and Shen and Zhao are favourites after leading the short programme ahead of Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia.

American national champions Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman were third.

Yagudin and Goebel top group A and group B, respectively

In the men's competition, heavily-favoured Alexei Yagudin of Russia, the only Olympic champion to compete here, took top place in the qualifying Group A with American Timothy Goebel leading Group B.

Yagudin is the hot favourite to win back the men's title since his top rival and compatriot, Olympic silver medallist and defending champion Yevgeny Pluschenko, has pulled out with joint inflammation.

"I did not try a second quad or two triple axels," said Yagudin, who won the world title for three years running from 1998 to 2000.

"I've just done one triple axel; I just wanted to skate to test my limits, like in practice, just to get a lot of my power for tomorrow evening, because it's gonna be a lot harder.

"I'm really happy that I actually chose to come here. It was really a hard decision for me (after the Olympics). I really wanted to come, because I've never skipped any of the events except the Russian nationals this year.

"I don't blame those who didn't come, because I know how hard it was. I was exhausted. Even if I'm gonna lose, still I won the Olympics. There can't be anything better than that," added the Russian, who turned 22 Monday.

The qualifiers count for 20 percent of the marks and the result puts the Russian and American neck and neck going into Tuesday's short programme which counts from 30 percent.

Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, and Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared the Olympic pairs gold, but skipped the worlds in the wake of a judging scandal that rocked the sport.

The scandal erupted after a French judge revealed she was pressured to vote for the Russians in exchange for a French ice dance victory.

"It doesn't matter whether they come or not. We are competing against ourselves, not competing against others. What we going to do is to perform the best we can for the audience," said Shen.

Shen: We did normally

The Chinese downgraded their double twist which became a single, but still earned the best marks of a 5.9, seven 5.8s and a 5.7 for technique, and a 5.9, five 5.8s, two 5.7s and a 5.6 for artistry.

"I don't think we did our 100 percent today," said Shen, adding they could not practice enough after the Olympics because of "many social activities."

"We skated relaxed like we do in practice, we were not nervous, but we were a little bit tight. But we did our normal skating," said Zhao.

Shen and Zhao have landed a quadruple throw many times in practice, but have never been able to do so in competition, and said they have not yet decided if they will attempt to make history by landing one in Wednesday's free skating final which counts for the remaining two-thirds of the marks.

"After the Olympics, we also landed some quadruples. The percentage of the landing is higher than before the Olympics, maybe because we were too nervous before the Olympics," said Zhao.

"But after the Olympics, I think our jumps are better," he added.

China have won only one world title before through Chen Lu in the women's competition in 1995.

Shen and Zhao Aim China's First World Pairs Title

China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo moved a step closer towards winning China's first pairs gold at the world figure skating championships in Nagano of Japan on Monday.

The Olympic bronze medallists took the lead in the short program ahead of Russia's Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin. Full story

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