SWEDEN: FIGURE SKATING - Preview to World figure-skating championships in Gothenburg

Record ID: 568082

  • Title: SWEDEN: FIGURE SKATING - Preview to World figure-skating championships in Gothenburg
  • Date: 18th March 2008
  • Summary: WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH INTERNATIONAL SKATING UNION (ISU) PRESIDENT, OTTAVIO CINQUANTA IN FOREGROUND PHOTOGRAPHERS IN FRONT OF PODIUM GERMAN CHAMPION ICE SKATING COUPLE ALIONA SAVCHENKO AND ROBIN SZOLKOWY AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRENCH ICE DANCER OLIVIER SCHOENFELDER SAYING: "Of course we come to this championship to win the title. But I don't think we are the special favourites. There are still other couples that can perform very well this year so the competition will be very interesting in ice dancing I think." JAPANESE TELEVISION CREW AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAPANESE ICE SKATING CHAMPION DAISUKE TAKAHASHI SAYING: "Yeah that's what they say but I feel no pressure - because I'm going to be the world champion so that's why."
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sweden
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAXOHSZ9PJDKA5GVBXFWNI2ZEO
  • Story Text: A close fight for medals awaits at the world figure-skating championships in Gothenburg.
    After an unusually mild winter, a snowstorm greeted participants and spectators ahead of the World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg on Monday (March 17).
    The championships, which will be held at the Scandinavium Arena in Sweden's second largest city, start on Tuesday and end on Sunday (March 23).
    During this time, 219 skaters, representing 48 nations will fight it out for the medals and it promises to be a close competition in all the disciplines.
    "Of course we come to this championship to win the title. But I don't think we are the special favourites. There are still other couples that can perform very well this year so the competition will be very interesting in ice dancing I think," French ice dancer Oliver Schoenfelder told a news conference.
    In the men's competition, reigning world champion Brian Joubert from France will face stiff competition from Japan's world silver medalist Daisuke Takahashi.
    After eclipsing two Evegeny Plushenko records last month, Takahashi is entering the hunt for the world champion crown as the hot favourite.
    The in-form Japanese has won every competition he has entered this season, with the exception of the ISU Grand Prix final, and is widely tipped to become his country's first gold medalist in the men's event. It's a prize he clearly covets.
    "Yeah that's what they say but I feel no pressure. 'Cause I'm gonna be the world champion so that's why," he told the news conference.
    In February, he outclassed all opposition to win the Four Continents trophy in Goyang, South Korea amd the easygoing Japanese skater, who landed two quads in a flawless long programme in Korea, has no doubt he can sustain the form this week when he faces Joubert and former champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland.
    "I feel good so... I'm so excited for this event," he said.
    Asked if he would be able to repeat his Four Continents' showing, he said: "I don't know, but I might have to do it like at the Four Continents or even more than that (to win)."
    The battle for women's gold could well be an all-Asian affair between between Japan's Mao Asada and Miki Ando and South Korea's Yu-Na Kim.
    Defending champion Ando, the only woman to have landed a quadruple jump in competition, has yet to win an event this season and could well be ousted by 17-year-old Asada, who has shown more consistent form.
    Asada, beaten into second place by less than one point by Ando, won at the Four Continents last month.
    Kim, the 2007 Grand Prix final winner, missed the event because of a hip injury and said on Monday she did not feel "100 per cent"
    yet.
    "I can never be sure about the result but when I do my best a good result always follows and I will do my best," she added.
    The 2006 world champion, American Kimmie Meissner, and Italy's European champion Carolina Kostner could also challenge for the title.
    Should Japan take both the men's and women's events, it will be the first double by a country since Russians Irina Slutskaya and Alexei Yagudin both won at the 2002 worlds in Nagano.
    A first for these championships is that Puerto Rico is represented for the first time ever.
    Around 400 million viewers worldwide are expected to follow the championships on television.
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