Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the pairs title at the World Figure Skating Championships, completing a sweep of all the year's major titles.
Savchenko and Szolkowy, also the Grand Prix and European champions, took advantage of their hugely difficult routine to win the title, beating China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao by more than five points. Canada's Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison won the bronze.
Earlier on Wednesday, two-time European champion Carolina Kostner edged reigning world silver medalist Mao Asada by the slightest of margins, a mere 0.18 points, to win the short program. Former world champion Kimmie Meissner, who is hoping a coaching switch can reverse a dismal season, was in ninth place. But Meissner was more than satisfied with the performance, punching the air when she finished.
The women's competition was expected to be a showdown between Asada of Japan and South Korea's Kim Yu-na, winner of the Grand Prix final. But Kostner had a different idea.
The Italian has departed from her classical comfort zone with this year's short program, packing elongated spirals, tight spins with ever-changing arm positions and big jumps between the opening shrieks and closing groans of The Doors classic Riders on the Storm.
She matched Asada's jumping ability with a huge triple-triple combination.
Her only error was a step out on the landing of her triple lutz, but it had little bearing. Her score of 64.28 included the best technical mark of the night.
Asada hit all of her jumps easily, seeming to hover momentarily above the ice before making her rotations. Her triple flip-triple loop combination, triple lutz and double axel were all gorgeous.
"The difference between first and second is not so much, so I will do my best in the long," said Asada, who finished with 64.10 points.
Asada's Japanese teammate, Yukari Nakano, was third with 61.10 points. Kim, who had to skip last month's Four Continents championship in her native South Korea because of a hip injury, is in fifth place.
Melinda Sherilyn Wang of Taiwan was 22nd with 44.77 points.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS