Domnina, Shabalin hold early sway
Source: Agencies |
February 21, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin passionately swayed to the beats of Tango Romantica on Friday to take the lead in possibly the last compulsory dance at the Olympics.
While skaters were divided about the merits of the snooze-inducing compulsory dance, which faces the ax as it is the least popular of all figure skating events, no one could grumble about the way the Russian world champions performed with their deft footwork and precise holds to score 43.76 points.
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir raised temperatures, and decibel levels, at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver with their seductive hip action to lie second with 42.74, while Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White finished third on 41.47, followed by 2006 Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.
With only 6.74 points separating the top eight couples in the three-part competition, the rankings could easily change under the accumulative-points scoring system following today's original dance.
France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, the 2008 world champions, were sixth just 4 1/2 months after she gave birth to her first child. Schoenfelder, who stands a good foot taller than Delobel, seemed to be guiding her around the rink, which fits for the tango.
While officials plan to ditch the compulsory dance as it has always been deemed as the one figure skating event which sends fans to sleep, since it does not contain any wow factor elements such as lifts, competitors were divided on the dance's merit. "I'm a big fan of cutting it out," Moir said.
Shabalin disagreed.
"The difference between free and original dance is time," he said. "But in the compulsory dance everyone shows the class of their skating in the same steps. I think it's a bad idea (to ditch it)."
While skaters were divided about the merits of the snooze-inducing compulsory dance, which faces the ax as it is the least popular of all figure skating events, no one could grumble about the way the Russian world champions performed with their deft footwork and precise holds to score 43.76 points.
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir raised temperatures, and decibel levels, at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver with their seductive hip action to lie second with 42.74, while Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White finished third on 41.47, followed by 2006 Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.
With only 6.74 points separating the top eight couples in the three-part competition, the rankings could easily change under the accumulative-points scoring system following today's original dance.
France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, the 2008 world champions, were sixth just 4 1/2 months after she gave birth to her first child. Schoenfelder, who stands a good foot taller than Delobel, seemed to be guiding her around the rink, which fits for the tango.
While officials plan to ditch the compulsory dance as it has always been deemed as the one figure skating event which sends fans to sleep, since it does not contain any wow factor elements such as lifts, competitors were divided on the dance's merit. "I'm a big fan of cutting it out," Moir said.
Shabalin disagreed.
"The difference between free and original dance is time," he said. "But in the compulsory dance everyone shows the class of their skating in the same steps. I think it's a bad idea (to ditch it)."
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