Plushenko win his fourth GP final title in China

Russian triple world champion Evgeni Plushenko clinched the men's title at the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating final in Beijing on December 18. This was the fourth time that he won at this event.

The 22-year-old Russian who led the short program with his personal best score of 84.35 points, entered the ice rink tonight as the last men's single skater. To the soundtrack of "Godfather", Plushenko in black produced a solid free routine performance with splendid jumps and intricate spins.

Finally, the GP final winner in 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 seasons gained his personal highest free skate score --167.40 points and crowned his fourth GP final title with a total score of 251.75 points in front of a huge fantastic crowd.

"I'm happy to win here. I skated a great program," said Plushenko. "The Chinese fans are good and they are really loud."

Plushenko expressed his wish to come to China again, "This is the first time I come to China and I feel comfortable here. I hope I can come here a few more times."

Emanuel Sandu of Canada, who outplayed Plushenko in last year's GP final to gain the title, made several mistakes in the event this evening including a fall and a hand landing on the ice. He had to accept the fourth place among six competitors with a total score of 195.90 points.

The defending champion said that he felt amazing during practice and didn't know what was wrong with him tonight. The 24-year-old skater who hold the third position with 75.60 points in yesterday's short program said that he was just unlucky.

Despite a fall on the ice, Sandu's countryman Jeffrey Buttle kept staying in the second place with a total score of 216.65 points.

Buttle had won in the same ice rink this year at the competition of Cup of China, the fourth leg of ISU GP series.

Local favorite Li Chengjiang presented an exciting free routine and improved his position from yesterday's fifth to third. His total score is 201.07 points. The first Chinese man to win an ISU Championship (Four Continents 2001) said that he was really satisfied with his performance tonight.

Source: Xinhua