Hits and misses in figure skating championships
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Unfortunately, there were more of the latter than the former in the early stages of the men’s short program on Wednesday afternoon.
One skater had issues with his bootstrap, another got sick while leaving the kiss and cry area and another said he felt ill during his program.
‘I’m so unlucky at these championships,’ said Peter Liebers of Germany. ‘First, my luggage with my skates didn’t arrive until Monday, then now in the warm-up, the button of my bootstrap came off and I stumbled over it, which made me nervous. I had to rip off the bootstrap completely.’
Said Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari of Finland: ‘It was quite hard because two weeks before this competition, I was sick. The sickness came into my legs and my muscles weren’t well. I had a little trouble with my triple axel. I didn’t have the energy, but I tried my best.’
The good news for Samuel Contesi of Italy, the silver medalist at the European Championships, was that he didn’t get sick on the ice.
‘I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s true, we’re all very stressed here,’ he said. ‘My aim was to stay strong until the very end of the program, and it did work very well.’
-- Lisa Dillman
