|
Zhangs to unveil quadruple jump
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-13 05:35
TURIN, Italy: Young Chinese skaters Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, who are
currently in second place after the short programme competition at the 2006
Turin Winter Olympic Games, will try a complicated movement in the deciding free
skate.
 They will attempt quadruple throw salchows in Monday's free skate
(Tuesday morning, Beijing time), according to their coach Yao Bin.
"The two Zhangs will be sure to show the quadruple throw in their free
skate," said Yao. "But the final results won't be decided by this movement
alone. History will be made with this movement, but I'm not sure if it will
secure the gold."
At the 2002 Winter Games, China's star pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo tried
the quadruple throw salchows in the free skating programme, but Shen failed to
land properly, which left them in third place.
Shen and Zhao are fifth this time after being absent from competition for the
whole season due to Zhao's tendon injury.
Zhang and Zhang are the first pair to successfully complete the quadruple
throw in formal competition; they did it at China's 10th National Games last
year, where they won the gold medal.
Now, they believe they are in the right form to do this difficult movement
again.
During Sunday's short programme competition, the two Zhangs scored 35.21
points for technical elements and 29.51 for performance components - a total of
64.72 points. They are behind Russia's reigning world champion duo Tatiana
Totmianina and Maxim Marinin.
Their new personal best score for artistic performance also helped them to
start China's gold medal chase at this year's Games in Turin.
"We were very, very satisfied with our routine today, especially with the
artistic performance," Zhang Hao said after the competition. "Since all the
programme component scores were above seven this time, we achieved a
breakthrough."
|
