Pluschenko claims eighth Russian championship

Figure skater Evgeny Pluschenko has set yet another world record and claimed yet another Russian national title.

The 2006 Olympic champion was awarded a combined total of just over 270 points for his short program and free skating. The new mark is seven points higher than the previous best.

And it was more than enough to secure an eighth national gold for the 27-year-old.

On Thursday, the St. Petersburg resident also set the record for becoming the first man to get more than 100 points for a short program.

Pluschenko had undergone knee surgery two weeks before the tournament, which raised concerns over his fitness for Vancouver, but his outstanding results on home ice have so far proved otherwise.

“As for the Olympics – we plan to do better than I did today, try to avoid injuries and perform on a high level and not to make such bad mistakes like I did today. I am very glad I was able to do another quadruple jump though. It was very good training. I had three successful competitions before the Russian championship. And maybe its only for the best that I had to overcome an injury to compete here, so that I could start training in fresh and leave all the mistakes behind me and deliver the gold in Vancouver,” Evgeny Pluschenko said.

Earlier on, world champions Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin claimed the ice dancing gold.

The duo were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field after the compulsory dance on Thursday and increased their lead in the original dance, and today's free dance.

Their victory also means they will represent Russia at the Winter Olympics in February, and will also take part in the European championships in Estonia next month.