Interview with Ilia Averbukh on Russian team at Euros and in general

[Katarzyna]

English interview:
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_21/Il...-Championship/

[Cherub721]

Thanks... he's very wise, I wish he were running the federation.

[nuge]

Someone needs to pour cold water over I/K Wish he could coach them

[joeperryfan]

I rarely disagree with Averbukh, this was no exception. He sees the big picture, he has for a long time, remember 2002 Worlds where he didn't mess with the whole petition thing?

[ioana]

Thanks for posting the link, Katarzyna.

Russian interviews are always interesting since people actually state a few opinions instead of, erm, having a PC monologue.

I did chuckle at this part

And if we win all four disciplines, we will see that, perhaps, only in pairs, where we will fight with Germans, it will be a real mini-championship of the world.

Where exactly does the uncertainty come into play? I mean, Canadian pairs looked impressive at Nationals and P/T are still around, but he doesn't seriously expect them to finish higher than third barring disasters from either S/S or V/T, does he?

[gkelly]

I did chuckle at this part

Where exactly does the uncertainty come into play? I mean, Canadian pairs looked impressive at Nationals and P/T are still around, but he doesn't seriously expect them to finish higher than third barring disasters from either S/S or V/T, does he?

I thought the part you quoted meant that Russia might win all four disciplines at Euros, but that only in the pairs discipline would they be fighting with another team they would be likely to be fighting for medals at Worlds (in the other disciplines their biggest competition will not be at Euros).

I.e., perhaps in pairs (but definitely not in other disciplines) Euros will prove to be a mini-world championship, same teams fighting for gold at both.

The uncertainty would be in case something happened to either S/S or V/T so that they withdrew from Euros or didn't skate well, in which case even in that discipline would not be a mini-Worlds either.

The phrasing is awkward, probably from a too-literal translation.

[ioana]

Ah, that would make more sense. He does go on to talk about people getting too excited about success at Euros and how that doesn't really indicate much about doing well on the world stage, so I looked at it as in 'only for pairs could this be used to predict World medals, and even then that's uncertain.' Your version would make more sense, however.