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FIGURE SKATING: Kulik win men's event; Kazakova, Dmitriev win with 'Matrix'

Source: AP News
Date: December 8, 2001
Author: Joseph White

WASHINGTON (December 8, 2001 10:36 PM EST) - The Average White Band was anything but average for Ilia Kulik, and a winning routine based on "The Matrix" was almost an innovative as the movie.

Kulik won the men's title Saturday night at the professional Skaters' Championship, scoring five perfect 10.0s to a lively routine to the AWB's "Pick Up the Pieces."

Kulik did his standard repertoire of textbook triple jumps, but his footwork, showmanship and rapport with the crowd have improved markedly since he won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.

"I try to connect more after three years of Stars on Ice," Kulik said. "Three years watching guys do that, I try finally to get a kick out of it. It's so fun and so much more energy. Sixty-shows on the road - you've got to try to get some energy back and keep going."

Kulik edged Kurt Browning, who got three 10.0s and dazzled the crowd again with his amazing footwork, much of it after the music had stopped. Browning is one of the few professional skaters that still takes winning and losing seriously, and he mocked banging his head into the wall talking about his second-place finish.

"I'm sitting there going, 'loser.' I don't how you beat Ilia on a night like this," Browning said. "But at the same time, I didn't give my best."

Brian Orser was third, followed by Steven Cousins and Philippe Candeloro, who performed the American debut of a routine to "George of the Jungle," using a man in the monkey suit as a prop. Candeloro said the man was his agent.

"He's gets paid every time I do a competition or an exhibition," Candeloro said, "so I let him do this work."

The pairs title went to Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, who dressed as a puppet and its master while skating to "The Matrix" soundtrack.

Dmitriev carried Kazakova onto the ice on his shoulder, then used the puppet string apparatus to sling her around the ice in several breathtaking moves. The routine was created this summer, and this was its debut in a competitive event.

"It's something new for us. It's an unusual way for us," Dmitriev said. "It's fun."

Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen were second, followed by Jenni Meno and Todd Sand.

Later Saturday, the women's competition was decided, with Sato and Kristi Yamaguchi separated by less than one-tenth of a point after Friday's technical program. Sato won the event last year, when it was called the World Professional Figure Skating Championship.