Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski captured their first major ice dance title by winning the European championships on Friday.
Now the Russians hope many more will follow.
“It is still unreal,” Khokhlova said. “I think this gold medal is only the beginning of a long way, but it was a big step for us.”
Khokhlova and Novitski won the free dance, completing a sweep of all three segments. Their overall score of 196.91 points was more than 10 points ahead of Italy’s Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali.
Sinead and John Kerr of Britain took the bronze medal.
Earlier, Laura Lepisto and Susanna Poykio gave the hometown fans a thrill with a 1-2 finish in the short program.
Favorite Carolina Kostner of Italy has work to do if she’s going to win a third straight European title after falling on the takeoff of her triple lutz. The free skate was yesterday.
Khokhlova and Novitski are two-time Russian champions, but they have come up short at the bigger events: Europeans, the world championships and the Grand Prix final.
Their best finishes were last year, when they won bronze medals at both Europeans and worlds.
But with world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder sidelined by her shoulder injury and last year’s European winners, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, forced to withdraw when he injured his knee again, the title was there for Khokhlova and Novitski’s taking.
They did not disappoint.
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
Taiwan will have two pairs vying for the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games’ tennis event in Paris as Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) officially clinched their third straight Olympic berth, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association said Thursday. According to the association, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Wednesday evening the Chan sisters’ qualification for the event, meaning they will join the duo of Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) to compete in the quadrennial sports jamboree. There are 16 entries in each doubles event. Hsieh, ranked No. 2 in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
Taiwan’s men’s national basketball team is set to upgrade its depth in the paint after signing Brandon Gilbeck of the P.League+’s Formosa Dreamers to a naturalized player’s contract. The 27-year-old big man from the US landed in Taoyuan early on Monday, where he was welcomed by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung. The two signed the deal, which still has to be approved by the Sports Administration and the Ministry of the Interior. Chang said he is confident that “the proceedings would go smoothly.” If approved, Gilbeck would become the third naturalized basketball player in Taiwan, following the New Taipei Kings’ Quincy
ONE GAME LEFT: ‘We 100 percent believe that this is the team,’ Kagiso Rabada said when asked if this team could end South Africa’s long World Cup drought A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan at the global T20 World Cup cricket tournament on Wednesday. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56. The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semi-final win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive