31.01.2011-ERZURUM 2011 MEDIA- Turkey’s first figure skater Alper Uçar will get on the rink with his partner Aliza Agafonova on Tuesday. The couple trained for the games for five months with trainer Natalia Duova and her assistant Oleg Voyko. The couple which will compete in both short programme and long programme is going to try to be in top five among 15 couples. Turkish National skater Alper Uçan who talks assertively for top five expressed his happiness and excitement to be in Erzurum and said “Figure skating tickets are black market items and this is an honour for us. I believe that we will be successful thanks to the support of Turkish spectators.”

We are ready..

Alper Uçar who became champion both in Turkey and Balkans in ice skating before he started his figure skating career expressed that couples need 5 years to warm towards each others and added “We are a couple for one and half year. Our trainer thought that we took huge steps in such a short time. We had a successful training period. Our rivals and us know each other and they are afraid of us. Our rivals are more experienced. Yet, I believe that we will be successful in the games thanks to the support of citizens of Erzurum. We are ready for the games for physically and mentally.

Dubova: “We set our heart on top five..”

Natalia Dubova who was a famous skater and trained three champions in Olympics during her career as a trainer is hopeful for the Turkish couple. Dubova who stressed that the skaters who compete in couples need 5 years to get to know each other, stated “In the past both Aliza and Alper got successful rankings. We started from scratch. Alper and Aliza are successful skaters. They got a harmony in a short period. I belive that they will be successful.” Russian trainer who highlighted the difficulties of harmonizing Alper and Aliza added “We always needed time to harmonize Turkish and Ukrainian mentality. We should not hurry up to get successful results. We are trying to do our best. Alper and Aliza took well rankings in international tournaments before EWU. Our target is to rank within the top five at the 25th WU.