Ice Skating: Slutskaya captures title for fifth time

Irina Slutskaya captured her fifth European title yesterday as she denied her compatriot Elena Sokolova gold in the figure skating championships in Malmo, Sweden.

The world champion, second best to Sokolova in qualifying and the short programme, fell attempting a triple salchow-triple loop combination in the free skate but still did enough to win. Sokolova, who had not competed in major competition for five years until this week, won the silver medal ahead of Hungary's Julia Sebestyen, who took bronze.

Slutskaya, who was Olympic silver medallist in Salt Lake last year, had won European titles in 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2001. Her fifth success equals the feat of France's Surya Bonaly in the early 1990s. Norway's Sonja Henie and Germany's Katarina Witt hold the record with six European crowns.

In the ice dance, the world champions Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia, earned one perfect mark for presentation in the original dance to lead going into today's free skate, ahead of Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski from Bulgaria.