On This Night, Sand, Meno Don’t Hit the Wall

Todd Sand took another swing Wednesday night, but this one was in exultation instead of at a wall. Although he would not know it until later, he and his partner, Jenni Meno, had just completed a long program that would earn them their second consecutive bronze medal in pairs at figure skating’s world championships.

All he knew at the time was that he had vindicated himself for the night before, when he fell on a relatively easy double axel and almost cost he and his wife a chance for a medal. The pair from Costa Mesa was in fifth place entering its long program, skated safely but elegantly.

“I think we skated this program about as well as we can skate it together,” Sand said.

Still, Meno and Sand needed help from at least two of the pairs who were ahead of them and got it on a night that will not be remembered as a classic for the event.

The champions were Russians Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov, even though they, like Meno and Sand, did not receive one score above 5.7 on a 6.0 scale for technical merit. In fact, the nine judges awarded no scores higher than 5.8--and only four of those--for technical merit.

Eltsova and Bushkov also won even though they received first-place marks from only four judges. Germans Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer, who finished second, received one first-place vote. The other four went to Russians Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who nevertheless finished fourth.

“It’s inexplicable,” said John Nicks, who coaches Meno and Sand, of the manner in which placements are determined.

He wasn’t complaining, however. Meno and Sand are the first U.S. pair since Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner to win world medals in consecutive years.

Meno and Sand thought it was barely possible after Tuesday, when he was so agitated he punched a hole in a wall in the corridor.

“There was a huge swing of emotion from one night to the next, definitely a good one,” Sand said.

Figure Skating Notes

Nancy Kerrigan’s reaction to reports that Tonya Harding wants to return to competition? “She really doesn’t have much to say about it,” said her husband/agent, Jerry Solomon. “She’s into much bigger and more important things at this point.” As for whether Harding should be reinstated by the U.S. Figure Skating Assn., Solomon said, “We’re just sure everybody will do the right thing.”