VANCOUVER, March 23 (Reuters) - Russia's Irina Slutskaya
leapt and spun her way to the top of the world figure skating
leader board on Friday, ahead of the entire United States team
of defending world champion Michelle Kwan, Angela Nikodinov and
Sarah Hughes.
Slutskaya's teammates Viktoria Volchkov and 1999 world
champion Maria Butyrskaya rounded out the Russia-U.S.-dominated
top six following the short program skate worth 30 per cent of
the final score at the world championships.
"I did what I wanted to do. Today was just a warm-up for
tomorrow. Today was important but whoever wins the free program
wins overall," Slutskaya said of Saturday's finale, which is
expected to be a Kwan-Slutskaya showdown for the gold.
Twice the world silver medalist, Slutskaya performed with
confidence and charisma to rank first on seven of the nine
judges' cards.
U.S. judge Joe Inman and Hermi Ottemann, of the
Netherlands, had Kwan on top.
Slutskaya opened with an impressive triple lutz-double loop
jump combination and closed with her trademark change-foot
Biellmann spin.
Kwan was not as convincing. The triple world gold medalist
skated tentatively on the warm-up and admitted to feeling a
little shaky in her performance to the stirring composition
East of Eden.
"I was a bit nervous going in but turned my nervous energy
into positive energy... I got chills up my spine when I got the
standing ovation," Kwan said.
She completed all eight required elements without error,
drawing the loudest applause for her exquisite spirals.
Kwan's coach Frank Carroll said of the program
choreographed by Canada's Lori Nichol, "The music is very
inspiring and uplifting. When she does the spiral sequence at
the end it has a tremendous impact."
Nikodinov, ninth in the world last year, was thrilled to be
in the hunt for a medal here.
"This year I have new faith in myself. I feel better about
myself, happier in my own skin. I am having a great time," said
Nikodinov, who moved back home to California last summer to be
coached by Russian ballerina Elena Tcherkasskaya.
Clean performances were the order of the day for the top
eight women, making the judges' task more difficult since there
were no obvious point deductions to be made.
As a result, each skater received a mixture of placings.
Kwan recorded two firsts, four seconds and two thirds, while
Nikodinov received a collection of thirds, fourths, fifths and
an eighth.
Butyrskaya's wide-ranging ordinals included two seconds and
two seventh placings.
"I was terribly nervous. It was so important to skate clean
today, Butyrskaya said. "Throughout the whole program my legs
were shaking."
The top 24 of 30 skaters in this round advanced to
Saturday's final.
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