1999 European Championships
January 24-31, 1999, Prague/CZE
Reports
Winkler/Lohse sucessful at Europeans - Rank 6
Winkler/Lohse just finished a sucessful European Championships
on January 29th in Prague. Finishing 6th, the couple from Berlin
established themselves in the small group of top ice dancers.
Clean compulsories were the base of this good placement. "We
were relaxed. (Coach) Martin (Skotnicky) gave us much strength
today", Kati commented. "We didn't have any big mistakes in
the compulsories", Rene said. "We worked a lot on the Ravensburg
Waltz after Nationals and we felt confident in the Tango."
The students of Martin Skotnicky defended their rank easily
with their charming Waltz "L'homme de Paris" in the OD. They
received marks from 5,1 to 5,3 (A) and from 5,2 to 5,5 (B).
The French judge even awarded them with a 5th place, but the
Hungarian only had them 7th. "Our waltz was good", Kati said
happily. "I had a fall this morning in practice, but now it
was fine. Maybe the practice was too early at 7 something! It
is hard to skate when the practice didn't go too well."
In their free dance, to east asian music, the Germans surprised
with new costumes and a new look. They wore Japanese-style red-black
costumes, and Rene even sported a little "Samurai" pony tail.
No wonder that the Japanese judge gave them with 5,4 (A) and
5,6 (B) the highest marks! Kati and Rene even didn't realize
this at first. "Maybe he liked it because it was in his style",
Kati guessed. Only two judges (Austria and Hungary) preferred
the Ukrainians Grushina/Gontcharov, everyone else put them 6th.
"We wanted to finish 6th here", Kati Winkler said. "It helps
me a lot to interact with the audience." The little pony tail
was her idea. She came up with it as the couple was getting
ready for the free dance. "It was a spontanous idea", Rene explained.
The German ice dancers now look optimistically into the future.
"We know where we want to go. The atmosphere is fine again."
Kati Winkler and René Lohse finished 6th after Original Dance
Kati and René could hold their 6th place after the compulsory
dances with an almost unanimously vote by the judges. All but
the Hungarian judge (7th rank) and the French judge (5th rank)
gave them the 6th place. Kati and René received marks from 5.1
to 5.3 (A) and 5.2 to 5.5 (B).
Both skated their waltz fluently and with speed and were very
satisfied with their performance to "L'homme de Paris" by Mireille
Matthieu. Now they are looking expectantly forward to the Free
Dance on Friday evening in Prague.
Kati Winkler & René Lohse 6th after the Compulsory Dances
Kati and René skated clean compulsory dances and came in 6th
in this part of the competition behind Barbara Fusar-Poli &
Maurizio Margaglio from Italy and Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas
Vanagas from Lithuania. They received marks from 4.9 to 5.3
(A) and 5.2 to 5.5 (B) in the Ravensburger Waltz and from 4.8
to 5.3 (A) and 5.0 to 5.4 (B) in the Tango Romantica.
They have skated the Tango Romantica already twice in the 1998/99
season - at the Sparkassen Cup in Gelsenkirchen and at the German
National Championships in Oberstdorf - and payed again attention
to this compulsory dance during the past two weeks of preparation.
Kati and René are in front of Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov
from Ukraine and Sylwia Nowak & Sebastian Kolasinski from Poland.
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