Evgeni wins Gold!

Cup of Russia

November 27, 2004

Evgeni Plushenko landed a quad and seven triple jumps to win Cup of Russia in Moscow.

It was Plushenko’s first Grand Prix competition of the season. He won the short and freeskate to easily outdistance silver medalist Johnny Weir.

Plushenko finished with 234.45 points, only 0.84 short of his ISU record under the new scoring system.

"For the first start of the season I performed not bad. The task was set to hit a quad, two triple Axels and all the rest. I coped with it,” Plushenko said.

Plushenko previously won a pro-am in early October and decided to rest his injured knee to prepare for the Russian Nationals and World Championships. He will skate in the Marshalls International Challenge Dec. 3 at Auburn Hills, Michigan in another tuneup.

The three-time World Champion opened his freeskate program, performed to the music of “The Godfather” with a quad-triple combination and tacked on another triple-triple and triple-double. The only flaw in Plushenko’s program came when he stepped out of a triple salchow near the end of his program.

Plushenko, although appearing quite strong in his first major competition, didn’t appeared overwhelmed despite beating Weir by 25.46 points.