Nancy Armour @nrarmour:
https://twitter.com/nrarmour/status/424641753824514048
With rest of Russian men making less-than-impressive cases at Europeans, will be shocked if Plushenko isn't in Sochi.
Again AFP article, with same old mistakes...
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 5ab2252d2e
Plushenko close to fourth Olympics (AFP)
Budapest — Russian figure skating star Yevgeny Plushenko's bid to compete in a fourth Olympics moved closer on Saturday as national champion Maxim Kovtun failed to medal at the European championships in Budapest.
Kovtun, an 18-year-old who took the national title ahead of 31-year-old Plushenko in December and had been tipped to take their sole men's berth in Sochi, finished fifth overall.
Two veterans -- Sergei Voronov, 26, and 30-year-old Konstantin Menshov -- found themselves on the podium for the first time behind winner Javier Fernandez of Spain.
Plushenko is not competing in Europeans this week.
"After the third quad attempt I understood this wasn't going to happen," said Kovtun, insisting he was able to deal with the pressure. We work on it a lot in training and I know how to deal with it," he said.
The Europeans has been a very high level -- everyone is skating their maximum. The energy was right in the short (programme) but here it wasn't."
Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic gold medal winner, was stunned at last month when he lost out to Kovtun, blaming a sequence of nagging injuries for his poor form. ((mistake!))
Plushenko said after the defeat that he would limit his participation at Sochi to the newly-installed team event starting on February 6, leaving his younger rival to fill the individual role. (mistake!)
However under International Skating Union (ISU) rules the same skater must compete in both the team and individual events. But if a skater is injured while competing in the team event he can be replaced for the individual event.
"As far as I know tomorrow (Sunday) there will be a test skate for Yevgeny Plushenko and then a decision will be made," said Voronov, who finished third at nationals.
"Obviously like everybody he wants to go to the Olympics. It would be a record, a fourth Olympic Games, for a person who has achieved everything. For me Plushenko is an icon in figure skating, but we all want to go there and there's only one spot."
Menchov, fourth at nationals and competing in just his second Europeans, moved up from 11th after the short programme.
"Yevgeny is a fighter. He will fight until the end. We had an early morning practice together at the nationals. I saw how he trains," he said.
"If he gets to go to the Olympics he will give 200 percent. He will not give up without a fight but we have to wait and see."
Fernandez added: "It's going to be a surprise when they decide because there are good athletes from Russia. It's going to be exciting to see who goes."
Plushenko had blamed Kovtun for Russia's single Olympic place.
"I just want to remind those who question my right to compete at Sochi that last year Kovtun was fifth in the Russian nationals but nevertheless he performed both at the European and the world championships," Plushenko said.
"After he finished 17th at the world championships in London, Canada, Russia received only one place at the Olympics tournament.
Kovtun performed well at last month's nationals but one needs to have solid experience of top international competitions to aspire to win Olympic medals."
Plushenko won gold in Turin 2006 and silver in Salt Lake City 2002 and Vancouver 2010.
He retired after the 2006 Olympics but returned to compete in Vancouver. After losing his eligibility to skate in ISU events because he skated in ice shows he was reinstated in 2011, and won his seventh European title in 2012.
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Javier Fernandez defends European Championships title:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/javier- ... hips-title
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Russia’s top skater coming into the European Championships, 18-year-old Maksim Kovtun, could not deliver in his free skate, dropping from fourth to fifth with a series of errors on jumps. The performance will likely impact his chance of being selected for the Russian Olympic team over veteran Yevgeny Plushenko, who sat out the Euros.
Russia is allotted just one spot for the Sochi Games after no man finished in the top 15 at the World Championships in 2013 (Kovtun was 17th). Neither Voronov nor Menshov were considered in the race to take the spot, which was seen as a back and forth between Kovtun and the veteran Plushenko, a three-time Olympic medalist and 2006 champion.
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Fernandez, who won the Spanish National Championships for the third consecutive year last month, joins Hanyu, reigning and three-time world champion Canada’s Patrick Chan, Vancouver bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi and American Jeremy Abbott – after his Nationals win last week – as contenders for the top spot in Sochi.
“I don’t want to expect anything,” said the Madrid native. “I want to go there and try my best and I hope that I can fight to be on the podium. I don’t know if [how I skated here] will be enough. I had a couple of mistakes that I have to fix before the Olympics. I think if I give a little bit more I have the chance to be on the podium.”
Russia is expected to announce its Olympic team by January 27th.
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Javier Fernandez skates to second consecutive European gold: (AP)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ol ... z/4636623/
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Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russia's Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006.
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Plushenko, the Olympic champ in 2006 and a two-time silver medallist, skipped the Europeans but his absence nearly overshadowed the Russian men's trio.
One of the biggest figure skating stars of the past 15 years, Plushenko is scheduled to perform a short (mistake!) and a free program behind closed doors for Russian skating officials on Tuesday for a chance to claim the country's only men's slot at Sochi.
Leading up to the Europeans, Voronov and Menshov were mentioned behind Russian champion Maxim Kovtun as contenders for the title and the position of Plushenko's main challenger.
But Kovtun finished fifth here and afterward seemed resigned to his fate.
"After the third quad attempt, I understood this wasn't going to happen," Kovtun said. "I don't really know what happened because it was all fine in the warmup and I had a great practice on (Friday)."
Voronov's silver was his best result in international competition. Though he won the Russian nationals twice, in 2008 and 2009, his career had stagnated. He refused to speculate about Plushenko's tryout, but made it clear that if he were to be selected by Russia, he was ready for the Olympic challenge.
"Of course I want to go, who doesn't want to go to the Olympics?" Voronov said. "Plushenko is an authority in figure skating but we all want to go and there is only one spot. It's not us who decides."
Adding to the intrigue, International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta was showered with questions by reporters in Budapest and had to explain at length the ISU's policy allowing countries to replace injured or ill skaters at the Olympics between the team event and the individual events.
The team event makes its Olympic debut on Feb. 6, a day before the opening ceremony.
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Udachi Zehnya! 
