SALT LAKE CITY (REUTERS) — Lithuania has launched a protest against the judging in Monday’s ice dance competition after their skaters finished fifth.
“A protest has been filed overnight and is in the hands of the event referee, Alexandr Gorshkov,” an International Skating Union spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The protest later won the backing of Russia’s Ilia Averbukh, Monday’s silver medalist with partner Irina Lobacheva.
Lithuania’s Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas came fifth behind French gold medalists Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. The appeal surrounds the free dance element of the competition in Monday’s finale.
Both the Italian and Canadian pairs, who finished third and fourth, fell, but the Lithuanians skated without an obvious flaw.
“After the Italians fell on the required elements, the judges put them ahead of us . . . it was funny, just funny,” Drobiazko said Monday.
“We skated better tonight than them, and they fell, and nothing changed.”
The Lithuanians were backed Tuesday by Russian silver medalist Averbukh, who told Reuters, “They absolutely have a right to protest. We believe they were unfairly denied a place on the podium.
“Both the Italians and Canadians were placed ahead of them, but both fell, and the Lithuanian pair skated a clean program but still finished fifth.
“Those falls should have been marked a 0.4 deduction on technical merit, and still they had 5.6 and 5.7, which means their technical was 6.0 [and] 6.1.
“We are fully sympathetic to the Lithuanians.”
The judges’ marks showed that technically the Lithuanians were comparable with the Italians and the Canadians, but on presentation they were scored lower.
The Russian, Swiss and Italian judges had them fourth in the free dance. The Lithuanian judge had them third, Germany, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Poland had them fifth, and Ukraine sixth.
Speed skating: American Derek Parra has smashed the 1,500 meters world record to win the most thrilling speed skating event yet at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Implored by a crowd chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A!” Parra sprinted to his first Olympic title in a record one minute 43.95 seconds, cutting more than one second off the old mark.
His triumph was sweet revenge on Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands, who had beaten him to the 5,000 meters gold earlier in the Games.
The Dutchman timed 1:44.57, also below the previous world record. The bronze went to defending champion Adne Sondral of Norway in a personal best time of 1:45.26.
The working-class boy from San Bernardino, Calif., shed tears with his wife and the adoring crowd before taking to the ice with his coach for his victory lap.
“It’s an incredible feeling, just incredible,” he said, his face wreathed in smiles. “The crowd empowered me.”
With U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld watching from the stands, Parra, who works in a hardware store, had no choice but to skate a world mark after Uytdehaage had beaten the record 11 pairs earlier.
The lightning-fast Utah Olympic Oval has now produced five world records in seven races at the Games.
Uytdehaage outclassed a strong Dutch contingent to take the silver.
Parra, just 5 foot 4, has been in superb form in Salt Lake City, having slashed almost 15 seconds off his personal best to take the silver in the 5,000 meters, the first event of the competition.
He raced hard from the start of what many consider to be the toughest distance in long-track speed skating.
“I had a great first two laps and a good second two laps,” he said. “It’s a great feeling.”
A former Rollerblade competitor, he was chosen as one of the athletes to carry the World Trade Center flag into the Games’ opening ceremony.
The previous 1,500 meters world record stood at 1:45.20, by South Korean Lee Kyu-Hyuk at the Calgary Olympic Oval March 15, 2001. The Korean finished eighth Tuesday.
Gretsky defends Canadian team: Canada has served notice that it is back on track going into Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the men’s Olympic tournament, but the road to gold remains wide open for any of hockey’s “Big Six” teams.
Reigning champions the Czech Republic, the United States, Canada, Finland, Russia and Sweden have all shown flashes of brilliance, as well as lapses in concentration that, in the one-game knockout quarterfinal format, could turn gold to rust as fast as a Sergei Fedorov slapshot.
After a poor start, the Canadians, who have not stood atop the podium since 1952, roared to life with a 3-3 tie with reigning champions the Czech Republic Monday night.
Canada has improved with each game and saw its captain Mario Lemieux, the most decorated player in the tournament, come back from injury to re-establish his team as a gold medal contender. Lemieux scored twice for Canada in the tie and was a constant threat.
The Canadians also showed off the ice how they have turned from a blasé group of NHL stars into cohesive unit, rallying around executive director and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
The normally mild-mannered Gretzky berated media and the hockey world in general over what he called the double standard set for Canadian players and Europeans.
“I’ll tell you what it is . . . They don’t like us. They love beating us. Nobody wants us to win but our players and our loyal fans. We’re very proud. I guarantee you we’ll be standing at the end,” said the man known as “The Great One.”
Whether Gretzky’s tirade, touched off by a dangerous cross-check from Czech defenseman Roman Hamrlik on Theo Fleury, was an attempt to fire up the team just as Phil Esposito tried in 1972 as Canada struggled against the Soviet Union, remains to be seen.
