NAGOYA, Japan, 6 November 2004 — Defending champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia free-skated to their third NHK Trophy pairs crown yesterday as world champion Shizuka Arakawa of Japan made a winning start to the women’s competition. The 2000 world champions overcame a minor error to topscore with 121.12 points for a two-day total of 187.56, ahead of China’s world bronze medalists Pang Qing and Tong Jian and Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek of Poland.
“We are very happy, because it’s the third time we won the NHK Trophy and second time here in Nagoya,” said Tikhonov following their third victory since 1999. “For us, we like to skate here in Japan very much, we like your country very much and also fans, because we have many friends here. This is a great feeling for us.” Tikhonov admitted making a couple of mistakes, “but Maria did it great. And the last pair combination spin, we made it a little bit short, because the music was a little bit late. But this is our first competition in this season, so it was a good performance.”
Tikhonov had also won the silver in 2001 and bronze in 2000 with Petrova.
Meanwhile world champion and home favorite Arakawa took a big step toward her first home victory by winning the women’s short program ahead of last year’s world silver medalist Elena Sokolova of Russia and Japan’s world junior champion Miki Ando.
In an error-free routine set to the music of “Madame Butterfly”, Arakawa started with a combination triple lutz and triple loop and ended with a combination spin to score a total of 64.20 points. The score put the 22-year-old well ahead of Sokolova on 52.98 points, Ando on 50.90 points and European silver medalist Elena Liashenko of Ukraine. In the ice dance, Russia’s world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, overnight leaders after the compulsory section, surrendered the lead to world silver medalists Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria in the original dance section
