Ice dancers retain leads, step aside

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 18, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY -- The big question wasn't who would win the original dance or whether the judging was fair. More pressing was just how soon the ice dance competition would end Sunday night so the real show -- the pairs medals presentation -- could go on.

[Times photos: James Borchuck] American couple Beata Handra and Charles Sinek were first on the ice, but they were 21st overall after the competition. Photo gallery of Sunday’s action

The original dance ended in a timely fashion and, not surprisingly, with little change in the standings. This one was a slam dunk, with France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who also won compulsories, stomping the field with their flamenco-flavored program.

Russia's Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh repeated their second place in the compulsories, even though they received a perfect 6.0 for presentation from the Polish judge -- the only one not to score the French in first place.

World champions Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy remained third, ahead of Canada's Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz.

Then a nearly full Salt Lake Ice Center could pay tribute to both pairs champions, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze and Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

Sale and Pelletier finished second to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze by the slimmest of margins in the pairs Monday. When a French judge admitted she was pressured to vote for the Russians, an International Skating Union investigation ruled that her marks were tainted.

But hours before the Canadians received their gold medals, three veteran judges from Western countries, whom the New York Times did not name, said the there was no provision in the ISU rule book to serve as a foundation for the awarding of duplicate gold medals. They said the ISU invented loopholes based on public outcry and Canada's campaign to turn silver into gold.

Four-time American ice dancing champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev were 11th overall. Beata Handra and Charles Sinek, the second U.S. couple, were 21st overall.

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