European champion Maxim Trankov blamed “strange ice” for his and partner Tatyana Volosozhar’s fall in the short program at the figure skating world championships in Nice on Wednesday.
Trankov and Volosozhar finished eighth with a score of 60.48, far behind German leaders Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy on 68.63 points.
Both of the other Russian pairs tumbled in the short program, leaving Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov fourth with 65.02 points, and Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov in 11th place with a score of 59.59.
All of the Russian pairs qualify for Friday’s free skate.
Trankov’s fall during the death spiral and the end of the routine ruined a good performance, he said.
“By the end we could have gone well, did a track, entered the death spiral, and ended up on the ice.”
“There’s very strange ice here, it has a weird quality. In some places it’s soft, in some places hard, it crumbles.”
Trankov and Volosozhar came second at last year’s world championships in Tokyo and won gold at the 2012 European championships in Sheffield.
The pair are the reigning Russian champions, while Trankov won two more Russian titles with Maria Mukhortova before teaming up with Volosozhar, herself a four-time Ukrainian champion.
