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Russia and China clash in battle of skating superpowers
2006-02-13
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao from China perform during the figure skating Pairs Short Program at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, February 11, 2006. |
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Russia and China collide in a potentially classic battle of free skating superpowers at the Winter Olympics. On a day when four more golds will be decided, most attention will be on the Palavela where two-time world champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia start favourites for the pairs title. Totmianina and Marinin, who will be looking to give Russia their 12th consecutive Olympic pairs title, have battled back after Totmianina was knocked unconscious in a fall at Skate America in 2004. She then missed the Russian national championships with a gall bladder condition. But after finishing fourth in Salt Lake City four years ago, she and Marinin are now within sight of their dream. "We went through these troubled days but now we are here," she said. China, still looking for their first golds of the Games, have three pairs still in contention in the top five after the opening short programme. Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, the world bronze medallists, are in second spot, ready to break Russia's stranglehold of the event and claim their country's first figure skating gold. Russian's former world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, the European bronze medallists, are third ahead of the free programme followed by China's 2004 world bronze medallists Qing Pang and Jian Tong and Olympic bronze medallists and two-time world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. China have only ever won three Olympic figure skating medals - bronzes by Lu Chen in the ladies' event in 1994 and 1998, and a bronze by Shen and Zhao in the pairs event in 2002. But Zhang Dan is refusing to think gold. "We don't speak about gold, but just about having a perfect performance on Monday," said Zhang Dan. The day's other three golds are in the men's 500m speedskating, women's snowboard half-pipe and women's 15km biathlon. Japanese world record-holder and reigning world champion Joji Kato is the comfortable favourite for the speedskating honours. Kato goes for gold one week after his 21st birthday in his Olympic debut after setting the world record of 34.30 seconds last November in Salt Lake City on the fast oval where American Casey FitzRandolph won at the 2002 Olympics. "Joji Kato is the man to beat. He's the guy we're all trying to chase," said US rival Joey Cheek. "I was paired with him when he broke the world record and it's funny because he's about half the size of me." The opening event in the women's biathlon, the 15km individual, looks to be a close run thing with Kati Wilhelm of Germany, the defending champion, seeking to hold off challengers from her own compatriots and French world champion Sandrine Bailly. America's Kelly Clark, the defending champion, looks to follow compatriot Shaun White by taking the women's version of the snowboard half-pipe.
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