Lang-Tchernescev hold lead in dance
Posted: Thursday February 11, 1999 10:58 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, the apparent heirs to the American ice dancing crown held seemingly forever by Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, strengthened their lead Wednesday in the original dance.
Lang and Tchernyshev, former training partners with five-time winners Punsalan and Swallow at the Detroit Skating Club, also took the compulsories the previous night at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. As usual in dance, there was little change in the standings, with Tuesday's runners-up, Eve Chalom and Mathew Gates, still in second place.
Third place still belonged to Deborah Koegel and Oleg Fediukov heading into Friday's free dance, worth 50 percent of the overall score.
Performing to Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flower" from "The Nutcracker," Lang and Tchernyshev finished first with eight of the nine judges. Chalom and Gates, who skated to Shostakovich's "Second Waltz," got the other first-place vote.
"That was the first time we debuted that one," Lang said. "But we skated that really well, we felt. It fits out style a little bit more than "Masquerade Waltz."
"We both used to do ballet and I danced to 'The Nutcracker,' so it is kind of like coming home. And he's Russian, so he understands it well."
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