Russians dance with passion to win gold

Published>Sat, Jan 23 10 03:20 AM

Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin pushed aside earlier controversy and showed their passionate side to win the ice dance gold at the European figure skating championships on Friday.

The world champions, who angered Australian Aboriginal elders on Thursday with their original dance, scored a total of 199.25 points in their three dances this week, although Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali scored higher in two dances.

The Italians took the silver, having been deemed better in the original and free dances, but because the Russians had built a five-point lead in the compulsory dance they could not catch the leaders up and ended with 195.86 points.

Last year's champions Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski of Russia had to settle for bronze with 189.67.

Domnina and Shabalin, who missed last year's competition because of injury, returned to claim the title they won in 2008 with a dramatic dance mixing love and hate to The Double Life of Veronique by Zbigniew Preisner.

"It was very difficult to win but we're happy we're here," Shabalin said in a rinkside interview after the victory just three weeks before the start of the Vancouver Olympics.

It was the third time in as many days the crowd stood for the Russian national anthem, after Yevgeny Plushenko's victory in the men's event and Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov's gold medal in the pairs.

KOSTNER LEADS

In the women's event, Italy's Carolina Kostner charmed the judges with an elegant routine to lead after the short program.

She is seeking to grab back the crown she held for two years before losing it last year to Finland's Laura Lepisto, who struggled with a wobbly heel on her boot but still stood third.

Kostner landed her jumps and moved around the ice with speed and grace to score 65.80 points and lead Finn Kiira Korpi, who was impossible to miss in fluorescent yellow.

The Finn was on 64.26, ahead of compatriot Lepisto's 62.96 before Saturday's free skating.

"I had a lot of fun and when I have fun I skate well," Kostner told a news conference.

Lepisto said she was having trouble with the heel on her left boot but would have to skate in it on Saturday because it takes time to wear in a new pair.

"Maybe I'm thinking about it (the boot) too much but I have to concentrate on the skating," she said.

Source: Web Search