Navka & Kostomarov :: The News :: Quote Archive (quotes from the most recent events are listed first) 2004 World Championships - Dortmund, Germany (after the free dance) "It wasn’t easy to skate after the German couple. But we pulled ourselves together and we did it. A year ago, we didn’t expect to end up on top of the podium this year, but we had hoped for it. At the end, I just thought, thank God, we did it. The atmosphere was so… everyone was received so well, the Germans, the Bulgarians, and when the Germans won the medal, you could go crazy. It was hard, plus I had to overcome a fall in the warm up." Kostomarov: "It’s tough to skate last in the final flight. But we stayed focused." (after the original dance) "That was it for this OD! It’s a bit sad to say good bye to this good original dance, but we competed a lot this season, and so we’re somewhat tired and we’re looking forward to get some rest. I think it was one of the best performances of the OD, emotionally. It was very precise as well. We also skated well at the Europeans, but as I said before, we try to improve from competition to competition. The 6.0 is super! I thought we might get such marks at the Europeans, but now we got it here, and it’s great." (after the compulsory dance) "We skated really well, especially because this is the first time we skated this new dance (in competition). The only thing: at the end I hit Roman on the nose in the final pose! It is additional strain to skate this new dance, which nobody has skated yet. I think everyone was nervous. We’ve been working on this dance for a month. We didn’t even know the steps until the Europeans. There, Lena (Grushina) and Ruslan (Goncharov) showed us the steps during the exhibition practice." Kostomarov: "Luckily, my nose didn’t start to bleed! We didn’t know what the judges are looking for in this dance. This made us nervous". 2004 European Championships - Budapest, Hungary (after the free dance) Navka: It was a long wait after the warm up - 30 minutes. I lay down and almost slept. Time passed quickly and I was ready for skating. (About her four year old child) It's not easy to skate and have a family but I'm strong. Women can do everything if they really want to. Psychologically it is hard. Sometimes the child helps me. If I have a bad practice and come home upset when I see her face it gives me energy and a focus away from skating. (What rules she would change) Yesterday there was a conference with judges and officials. Many people do not want to depend on the computer. We think that all 14 judges should judge. About rules there is no agreement - some people say one thing, some say another. We need to work with the music. If it is right for the music that we jump then we should be able to jump. Kostomarov: After the warm up I relaxed in the locker room and took my skates off. Maxim was there too. There was a lot of pressure skating last - it was hard.