Evgeni Plushenko of Russia performs his preliminary round free skating routine at the European Figure Skating Championships at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, northern England, January 23, 2012. The championships will run from January 23 to 29.
Russian skating star Evgeni Plushenko is plodding a difficult return to the figure skating wars.
On Monday, Plushenko easily won a preliminary round at the European figure skating championships in Sheffield, England.
Plushenko defeated a group of obscure skaters by 42.48 points. On paper, it was an easy win. But in reality, Plushenko is struggling. And hurting.
The 29-year-old Olympic champion is still in pain from a meniscus injury for which he underwent surgery at the beginning of the season. He knows he needs another surgery to correct the problem.
And on top of his woes, he pulled a muscle the other day in practice while attempting a quad. "I couldn't turn my head," he said. "To be honest, yesterday, I wasn't sure if I could skate today. Actually, I am proud of myself for skating today the way I did."
Skating to Tango de Roxanne, Plushenko landed a shaky quadruple toe loop, two triple Axels and three other triples to score 157.12 points for his free program.
By comparison five-time Canadian champion Patrick Chan scored 200.81 points for his free skate at the national championships in Moncton, N.B. the day before. Chan holds the world record of 187.96 for a long program, set last year when he won the world championships.
Plushenko acknowledged that yesterday's effort wasn't exactly his best.
"I think this is the hardest one [competition]in my life," Plushenko said. "The performance today wasn't my best but for today, it was good and I am happy with it."
He said it was important for him to go for the quad in the preliminaries, because he has no idea how his knee will react to the torque of the formidable jump. Apparently, the effects on his knee are different every time he tries it.
Because of new international rules, Plushenko had to qualify to get into the European championships. Because he hasn't competed since the Vancouver Olympics (when he last met Chan, defeating him), Plushenko wasn't able to meet another new rule of having a minimum international score to get into the event. He had to get special dispensation from the International Skating Union to compete in Sheffield. And because the special dispensation was for the European championships only, he'll have to deliver a minimum score to make it to the world championships in March, or he'll have to ask the ISU for another favour.
The new rules are meant to cut down on the numbers and expense of staging championship events, but they also have the effect of making it difficult for top skaters who are taking time off from the competitive wars, to return to them.
That means that Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette, and Olympic champions Evan Lysacek and Yu-Na Kim will face the same roadblocks if they wish to return.