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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Kazakova, Dmitriev win pairs short in Olympic skating
20:00- Start
Artur Dmitriev set himself up for his second Olympic gold medal as he and Oksana Kazakova skated almost flawlessly to win the pairs short program Sunday as the Nagano Olympic figure skating competition got under way.
Kazakova and Dmitriev, who won at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games with a different partner, performed their side-by-side spins in complete synch and nailed their solo jumps while mixing speed and elegance to ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' by Richard Strauss.
''There are a lot of couples skating strong,'' said the 30-year-old Dmitriev, who also won back-to-back world championships with former partner Natalia Mishkutienok in the early 1990s.
Asked how close he is to becoming the first man to win two Olympic pairs titles with two different women, he said, ''We're not finished yet. It's a very serious competition and I don't want to speak about this now.''
Kazakova dressed in white and Dmitriev in black, the world bronze medalists had a slight problem when her blade did not glide cleanly on the ice in the death spiral, a move in which the man acts as the axis and the woman rotates around almost laying down.
But the Russians received scores of 5.6 to 5.9 out of a possible 6.0 points for presentation and from 5.5 to 5.8 for required elements to top the competition at the nearly packed White Ring ice arena in southern Nagano.
Reigning world champions Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer of Germany, who had the disadvantage of skating an early eighth in a field of 20, finished second despite a painful injury that had plagued Steuer since December.
Steuer, who was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Germany in mid-December, said he had to cut short his practice earlier in the day due to excruciating pain in his right shoulder and took pain killers to compete in Saturday's short program.
''We had a problem with Ingo's shoulder and started practice only 10 days ago,'' Woetzel said. ''We also had a bad starting number but we skated clean and we are happy.''
Young Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the European titlists, received the highest scores of three 5.9s and six 5.8s for the presentation aspect of their routine but took third as Sikharulidze's fall in landing the triple toe loop damaged their technical marks.
Japanese-born Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen, two-time U.S. national champions, made no apparent mistakes in their short program set to the sounds of Japanese ''kodo'' drums but had to settle for fourth place to the dismay of both the American and domestic spectators.
Japan's Marie Arai and Shin Amano, who teamed up just one year ago, ended at the bottom in 20th in their first-ever major international competition -- but received the most flowers from the home crowd.
The pairs competition concludes Tuesday with the free skating. (Kyodo News)
Results of the figure skating pairs short program Sunday in the
18th Olympic Winter Games at White Ring, Nagano:
*
1. Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, Russia 0.5 point(s)
2. Mandy Wotzel and Ingo Steuer, Germany 1.0
3. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, Russia 1.5
4. Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen, U.S. 2.0
5. Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov, Russia 2.5
6. Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, U.S. 3.0
7. Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis, France 3.5
8. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, China 4.0
9. Peggy Schwarz and Mirko Muller, Germany 4.5
10. Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek, Poland 5.0
11. Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, Canada 5.5
12. M.-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet, Canada 6.0
13. Evgenia Filonenko and Igor Marchenco, Ukraine 6.5
14. Katerina Berankova and Otto Dlabola, Czech Republic 7.0
15. Danielle McGrath and Stephen Carr, Australia 7.5
16. Marina Khalturina and Andrei Kroukov, Kazakstan 8.0
17. Sabrina Lefrancois and Nicolas Osseland, France 8.5
18. Mariya Krasiltseva and Aleksander Chestnikh, Armenia 9.0
19. Inga Rodionova and Aleksandr Anichenko, Azerbaijan 9.5
20. Marie Arai and Shin Amano, Japan 10.0
No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.
Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun