Press Releases
GALA EXHIBITION FROM EUROPEANS WOWS SHEFFIELD CROWD
This afternoon, crowds at the Motorpoint Arena were treated to a spectacular Gala Exhibition following the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012.
Opening the show was British Novice Champion Graham Newberry, who skated to ‘We Speak No Americano’ by Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup. Graham’s father was British Champion in 1989, and speaking before the Gala he said: “Skating is very much in our family and to now see my sons represent Great Britain as I did makes me very proud. Graham is also excited to skate on the same ice as some of his skating heroes.”
One of the fan’s favourites from the Championships, Florent Amodio of France, who took the bronze medal in the Men’s competition, performed to Ray Charles’ ‘Mess Around’. And closing the first half of the Gala were seven-time British Ice Dance champions, John and Sinead Kerr.
Kicking things off in the second half were Olympic Gold medal skater, Robin Cousins’ choreographed group of 100 young skaters, who performed their Opening Ceremony number. They were followed onto the ice by British novice skater Maxine Yu who skated to ‘Your Song’ by Ellie Goulding.
After a sixth place result for the young GB Ice Dance couple, Penny Coomes/Nick Buckland took to the rink once again in the Gala where they memorised the audience with their routine to Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’.
Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic thoroughly entertained the fans with his skate to ‘Sexy And I Know It’, sporting a curly wig, sunglasses and gold hot-pants.
Completing the action were four routines from the 2012 European Champions themselves. Pairs Champions Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov of Russia, Ladies Champion Carolina Kostner from Italy, Ice Dance Champions Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat of France, and finally Men’s Champion and Russian skating star Evgeni Plushenko with his spellbinding performance to ‘Je Suis Malade’.
Full performers schedule for the Gala Exhibition:
Graham NEWBERRY (GBR), Novice Skater
Elena ILINYKH / Nikita KATSALAPOV (RUS), 3rd Ice Dance
Florent AMODIO (FRA), 3rd Men
Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE (GER), 5th Pairs
Viktoria HELGESSON (SWE), 5th Ladies
Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO (RUS), 5th Ice Dance
Michal BREZINA (CZE), 4th Men
Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV (RUS), 3rd Pairs
Polina KOROBEYNIKOVA (RUS), 4th Ladies
Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE (ITA), 4th Ice Dance
Elene GEDEVANISHVILI (GEO), 3rd Ladies
Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV (RUS), 2nd Pairs
Sinead KERR / John KERR (GBR)
Maxine YU (GBR), Novice Skater
Penny COOMES / Nicholas BUCKLAND (GBR), Ice Dance
Tomas VERNER (CZE), 5th Men
Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK (ITA), 4th Pairs
Kiira KORPI (FIN), 2nd Ladies
Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV (RUS), 2nd Ice Dance
Artur GACHINSKI (RUS), 2nd Men
Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV (RUS), 1st Pairs
Carolina KOSTNER (ITA), 1st Ladies
Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT (FRA), 1st Ice Dance
Evgeni PLUSHENKO (RUS), 1st Men
Opening the show was British Novice Champion Graham Newberry, who skated to ‘We Speak No Americano’ by Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup. Graham’s father was British Champion in 1989, and speaking before the Gala he said: “Skating is very much in our family and to now see my sons represent Great Britain as I did makes me very proud. Graham is also excited to skate on the same ice as some of his skating heroes.”
One of the fan’s favourites from the Championships, Florent Amodio of France, who took the bronze medal in the Men’s competition, performed to Ray Charles’ ‘Mess Around’. And closing the first half of the Gala were seven-time British Ice Dance champions, John and Sinead Kerr.
Kicking things off in the second half were Olympic Gold medal skater, Robin Cousins’ choreographed group of 100 young skaters, who performed their Opening Ceremony number. They were followed onto the ice by British novice skater Maxine Yu who skated to ‘Your Song’ by Ellie Goulding.
After a sixth place result for the young GB Ice Dance couple, Penny Coomes/Nick Buckland took to the rink once again in the Gala where they memorised the audience with their routine to Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’.
Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic thoroughly entertained the fans with his skate to ‘Sexy And I Know It’, sporting a curly wig, sunglasses and gold hot-pants.
Completing the action were four routines from the 2012 European Champions themselves. Pairs Champions Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov of Russia, Ladies Champion Carolina Kostner from Italy, Ice Dance Champions Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat of France, and finally Men’s Champion and Russian skating star Evgeni Plushenko with his spellbinding performance to ‘Je Suis Malade’.
Full performers schedule for the Gala Exhibition:
Graham NEWBERRY (GBR), Novice Skater
Elena ILINYKH / Nikita KATSALAPOV (RUS), 3rd Ice Dance
Florent AMODIO (FRA), 3rd Men
Mari VARTMANN / Aaron VAN CLEAVE (GER), 5th Pairs
Viktoria HELGESSON (SWE), 5th Ladies
Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO (RUS), 5th Ice Dance
Michal BREZINA (CZE), 4th Men
Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV (RUS), 3rd Pairs
Polina KOROBEYNIKOVA (RUS), 4th Ladies
Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE (ITA), 4th Ice Dance
Elene GEDEVANISHVILI (GEO), 3rd Ladies
Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV (RUS), 2nd Pairs
Sinead KERR / John KERR (GBR)
Maxine YU (GBR), Novice Skater
Penny COOMES / Nicholas BUCKLAND (GBR), Ice Dance
Tomas VERNER (CZE), 5th Men
Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK (ITA), 4th Pairs
Kiira KORPI (FIN), 2nd Ladies
Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV (RUS), 2nd Ice Dance
Artur GACHINSKI (RUS), 2nd Men
Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV (RUS), 1st Pairs
Carolina KOSTNER (ITA), 1st Ladies
Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT (FRA), 1st Ice Dance
Evgeni PLUSHENKO (RUS), 1st Men
PLUSHENKO SECURES SEVENTH EUROPEAN TITLE
Russian skating star, Evgeni Plushenko wowed crowds at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield this afternoon when he took the gold medal with a stunning combined score of 261.23 points to become the 2012 Men’s European Champion.
After finishing in second place for his Short Programme with 84.71 points, Plushenko impressed judges in his Free skate to receive a score of 176.52 points, earning him his seventh Men’s European Championship title. Plushenko took the lead from Russian team mate Artur Gachinski who was in front following the Short Programme on Thursday with 84.80 points. Gachinski took the overall silver medal with a combined score of 246.27 points. Taking the overall bronze European medal was reigning Champion, Florent Amodio of France with a combined score of 234.18 points.
Plushenko was delighted to win his seventh Europeans title, he said: “I’m happy with my performance, and with the results. After this competition I will go to see my doctors and go to Munich for surgery, so I’m not going to compete in the Worlds. I’m going to have surgery on the left knee (meniscus). Then I will prepare for next season with hard work, a lot of work, but today I’m so happy. Believe me I’m proud of myself because I did a good job in the free, a good quad, good triple axel combination, and I wrote a little bit of figure skating history. I’ve won the European title seven times, so of course I’m happy.”
Commenting following Plushenko’s stunning performance this afternoon, Gachinski said: “Ultimately, I just skated for myself and did everything I could. I tried to complete all the jumps and steps and my aim is just to get everything done for myself. I was very happy with my programme. I had been waiting a long time to skate this free and I’m happy with how it went. I did everything I attempted very well.”
Belgian skater, Kevin van der Perren withdrew from the Men's Free Skating at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012, following the warm up, citing injury.
The Ladies European Champion 2012 was also decided today with World silver medallist, Carolina Kostner of Italy claiming the title with a combined score of 183.55. After earning 63.22 points in her Short Programme, Kostner led the Ladies going into the Free skate and went on to claim the European title for the fourth time with a 120.33 point Programme.
Taking the overall silver and bronze European medals were Finnish skater, Kiira Korpi and Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia with 166.94 and 165.93 combined scores respectively.
Kostner who was attending her tenth Europeans this year commented on her winning Programme: “I had an awesome feeling on the ice and just hearing the crowd cheer me on was amazing. I am very pleased with the whole week here. For me it was a big fight today. I completely cancelled the pressure out of my mind. I am looking for good performances, especially just for myself because this is my tenth European Championship; I've won it three times [before] and in those three times I never had the chance to really enjoy it. That's what I did this whole week and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.”
Bronze medallist, Gedevanishvili added: “I think my performance was pretty good. I worked really hard and it was good to feel that it paid off. The most important thing for me is that after a long time I just enjoyed skating again.”
Brit, Jenna McCorkell grabbed 18th place overall following her Free Programme where she achieved a combined score of 125.41. McCorkell of Coleraine, Northern Ireland was disappointed with her skate this evening but enjoyed competing in front of her home crowds: “I felt really good before. I was very excited because the crowd were amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. When I fell on the flip it really threw me because I’ve never fallen on that before. But I became tense after the fall and wasn’t focused. It’s my own fault. I made stupid mistakes.”
After finishing in second place for his Short Programme with 84.71 points, Plushenko impressed judges in his Free skate to receive a score of 176.52 points, earning him his seventh Men’s European Championship title. Plushenko took the lead from Russian team mate Artur Gachinski who was in front following the Short Programme on Thursday with 84.80 points. Gachinski took the overall silver medal with a combined score of 246.27 points. Taking the overall bronze European medal was reigning Champion, Florent Amodio of France with a combined score of 234.18 points.
Plushenko was delighted to win his seventh Europeans title, he said: “I’m happy with my performance, and with the results. After this competition I will go to see my doctors and go to Munich for surgery, so I’m not going to compete in the Worlds. I’m going to have surgery on the left knee (meniscus). Then I will prepare for next season with hard work, a lot of work, but today I’m so happy. Believe me I’m proud of myself because I did a good job in the free, a good quad, good triple axel combination, and I wrote a little bit of figure skating history. I’ve won the European title seven times, so of course I’m happy.”
Commenting following Plushenko’s stunning performance this afternoon, Gachinski said: “Ultimately, I just skated for myself and did everything I could. I tried to complete all the jumps and steps and my aim is just to get everything done for myself. I was very happy with my programme. I had been waiting a long time to skate this free and I’m happy with how it went. I did everything I attempted very well.”
Belgian skater, Kevin van der Perren withdrew from the Men's Free Skating at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012, following the warm up, citing injury.
The Ladies European Champion 2012 was also decided today with World silver medallist, Carolina Kostner of Italy claiming the title with a combined score of 183.55. After earning 63.22 points in her Short Programme, Kostner led the Ladies going into the Free skate and went on to claim the European title for the fourth time with a 120.33 point Programme.
Taking the overall silver and bronze European medals were Finnish skater, Kiira Korpi and Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia with 166.94 and 165.93 combined scores respectively.
Kostner who was attending her tenth Europeans this year commented on her winning Programme: “I had an awesome feeling on the ice and just hearing the crowd cheer me on was amazing. I am very pleased with the whole week here. For me it was a big fight today. I completely cancelled the pressure out of my mind. I am looking for good performances, especially just for myself because this is my tenth European Championship; I've won it three times [before] and in those three times I never had the chance to really enjoy it. That's what I did this whole week and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.”
Bronze medallist, Gedevanishvili added: “I think my performance was pretty good. I worked really hard and it was good to feel that it paid off. The most important thing for me is that after a long time I just enjoyed skating again.”
Brit, Jenna McCorkell grabbed 18th place overall following her Free Programme where she achieved a combined score of 125.41. McCorkell of Coleraine, Northern Ireland was disappointed with her skate this evening but enjoyed competing in front of her home crowds: “I felt really good before. I was very excited because the crowd were amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. When I fell on the flip it really threw me because I’ve never fallen on that before. But I became tense after the fall and wasn’t focused. It’s my own fault. I made stupid mistakes.”
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