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Irina Slutskaya will compete in next world championship Irina Slutskaya decided to take part in figure skating world championship, which will take place in Calgary (Canada) on March 20-26. “I will certainly go to world championship,” stated Slutskaya, who has not been earlier included in the national team. At the same time, Slutskaya does not still know, whether she will compete in the next Olympic Games. “I do not plan so far ahead,” stressed the figure skater, informs UTRO.ru web site. For President of Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev, Slutskaya’s decision was surprise. “I am surprised and pleased,” confessed...

Cabinet minister apologizes for Slutskaya schadenfreude Cabinet Minister Kenji Kosaka has apologized for saying that he was happy when Russian figure skater Irina Slutskaya fell down during her performance at the Turin Winter Olympics, which helped Japanese rival Shizuka Arakawa to win the gold medal. "Even though I was glad that (Arakawa) won the gold medal, I deeply regret having made inappropriate remarks and would like to apologize to figure skaters Arakawa and Slutskaya," Kosaka, minister for education, culture, sports, science and technology, said in a statement. He made the controversial remarks when he met with Arakawa, who visited the...

Monday, January 23, 2006 Plushenko, Slutskaya look to Turin as Russians sweep Europeans LYON: Yvegeny Plushenko and Irina Slutskaya stole the show as Russia bared their teeth ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics by sweeping all titles on offer for the second consecutive year at the European figure skating championships which ended here on Saturday. Both Plushenko and Slutskaya are gunning for gold after having to settle for silver in Salt Lake City four years ago. Plushenko lost to great Russian rival Alexei Yagudin and Slutskaya to US teenager Sarah Hughes. And as Plushenko claimed his fifth European men’s title...