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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Serendipity

17 November, 1998 - 00:00

After Oksana Baiul won the Olympics, Ukrainian fans heard little from her
fellow figure skaters. Olena Liashenko and Yuliya Lavrenchuk managed to
bag only two bronze medals in the European tournaments.

 The main struggle in top world ice rinks was between Russian,
American, and Chinese female figure skaters. This is why 22 year old Olena
Liashenko's victory in the international ISU Grand-Prix tournament is even
more pleasant. In the second stage (Skate Canada), held in Canada, the
student of Mariya Amirkhanova outdistanced ten skaters, including twice-European
champion Iryna Slutskaya of Russia. The Russian champion was third in the
summary - 4.5 points. Fumie Suguri of Japan came in second with 2.5 points.
After the first round Olena was half-point behind her, but in the final
summary the Ukrainian skater came in first with 2.0 points.

In the men's competition Yevhen Pliuta defended Ukraine's colors, placing
sixth in the summary (there were eleven participants). This is a pity,
because he was in the top three after the first round. Yevgeny Plushchenko
of Russia came in first with only a half point edge over Olympic champion
Elvis Stoyko of Canada.

Chinese athletes Tsiu Chen and Hongbo Chao were victorious in pairs.
In the competition of dancing duets no one came close to the Canadian pair
Che-Lin Burn and Victor Kraatz. This is already their fifth victory in
the Skate Canada tournaments.

The next start for Olena will be in Paris late November. And already
on December 3-6 she will participate in the rating tournament in Sapporo,
Japan, where she will have to compete against Slutskaya, Suguri, and Leticia
Ubere of France.

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