Russian team gained two silver medals at last week's world figure skating championships in Nice, one of them is the first medal of Russian female skater in seven years.

      Russian sports officials said Russia considers two silver medals at last week's world figure skating championships in Nice as a positive result for the current Russian figure skating's condition, which is not so good as it was several years ago.

      The first silver medal came from Alena Leonova, who took the second place in short program of the championship, finishing behind Italy's Carolina Kostner in the women's competition. She became the first Russian woman in seven years to win a medal at the world championships, after Irina Slutskaya finished her career.

      Kitted out as a pirate complete with knee-high, brown boots and skating to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, Leonova became a real surprise for the public. She ended with 184.28 points, but still was not able to catch up with Carolina Kostner and her 189.94 points, gained after her extraordinary performance to Mozart's Concerto No. 23 for Piano and Orchestra.

      Another Russian skater Ksenia Makarova, ranked sixth after the short program, ended up ninth with 149.48 points.

      The other silver medal was gained by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who came second to German couple Alyona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy in free skating. 

      Russian 19-year-old figure skater Artur Gachinski placed only 18th in the men's short program, though he was the main hope of the Russian team. Last month, Artur finished second to Evgeny Plushenko at the European championship, so he was expected to have better results at the following competitions.

      However, Valentin Piseev, the general director of Russia's Figure Skating Federation assesses positively the whole team's performance, comparing it with the previous years.  

Sources: kp.ru vesti.ru Image: sport.siteua.org