Three-time Olympic medalist Yevgeny Plushenko decided to withdraw from the European figure skating championships in Croatia Thursday after receiving a less than stellar score on his short program.
He was sitting in sixth with just 74.82 points, a full fifteen points behind Frenchman Florent Amodio, after mistakes on two key jumps during his routine.
“It’s not a tragedy,” Pluschenko told Ves-Sport news agency. “However, I myself don’t understand what happened. Maybe I just hurried to make the triple axel, from which I fell very long ago. It seems I wanted to finish the program as soon as possible.”
He went on to explain, or excuse, his performance, saying that he was forced to remove a quadruple jump because of his injury and simply couldn’t readjust to doing the triple, instead. And then he lashed out at the event’s security guards.
“They didn’t allow me to warm-up: ‘You can’t run! You can’t walk! Go there! Go here!’ They began touching me and, of course, it made me angry. But it’s still inexcusable to make such mistakes.”
It’s a pretty disappointing result for the seven-time European champion as he aims to score a record fourth medal at his hometown Games next year. Here’s hoping he gets back to fighting-shape before worlds.
