Russia’s Julia Lipnitskaia smiles after performing in the Women’s Figure Skating Team Free Programme at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the Sochi Winter Olympics in Sochi, yesterday.
SOCHI, Russia: National idol Yevgeny Plushenko and rising star Julia Lipnitskaia got hosts Russia off the mark yesterday sealing gold in the inaugural team figure skating event at the Sochi Olympics.
It was a fourth Olympic medal for the 31-year-old Plushenko but his achievement was almost overshadowed by Lipnitskaia, who sealed gold at the age of just 15 to euphoria at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
Watched by President Vladimir Putin, Russia took a precious gold on home soil even before the final round — the ice dance free dance.
Ice dancers Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov then stepped up and placed third behind Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White and Canadians Tessa virtue and Scott Moir.
Putin later joined the skaters rinkside wearing the team colours. The hosts won five of the eight sections over three days of competition to take gold with 75 points. Canada took silver with 65 with the United States bronze medallists with 60.
“I’m 31 years and this means everything to me. It’s so much history,” said 2006 Olympic champion and two-time silver medallist Plushenko. He joins Swede Gillis Grafstroem as the only skater to win four figure skating medals — three in gold — between 1920 and 1932. “To repeat the same results in new times is different. But I don’t want to put him higher than Grafstroem,” said Plushenko’s coach Alexei Mishin.
Plushenko landed a quad but went away from his planned programme to “The Best of Plushenko” made up of fragments of his performances over the years to music by violinist Edvin Morton.
He scored 168.20 for the free skate with Kevin Reynold achieving 167.92 and Japan’s Tatsuki Machida 165.85.AFP
