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French fly Anissina, Peizerat move into first in ice dance at Worlds
Posted: Thursday March 25, 1999 01:30 PM
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- The French duo of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat captured the original dance and moved into first pace of the ice dance event Thursday at the World Figure Skating Championships. Russian titleholders Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov are second but in a virtual tie. The decision goes down to the final free dance on Friday. Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Germany were third. Even if they win the free dance, if one of the other top two couples comes in second, that couple would win the title. Later Thursday the men's title will be decided with Russians Alexei Yagudin and Yevgeny Plushenko in the top two positions and three-time world champion Elvis Stojko third. Michelle Kwan also was skating, although only in practice for her next competition in Friday's short program. She had considered taking Thursday off, but came to the first of the days two practice sessions. She repeatedly landed the triple lutz that she had unexpectedly turned into a double during the previous day's qualifying round. Coach Frnk Carroll said Kwan was recovering from the head cold that had been bothering her earlier in the week and decided to capitalize on the improvement. "We decided to practice because it would be an opportunity to go over some things," he said. He said she would sit out the day's second practice session. In the ice dance, Krylova and Ovsiannikov could have virtually wrapped up the title with a win in the original dance portion, worth 30 percent of the total scoring. However Anissina and Peizerat captured the section on a 5-4 decision over the defending champion. When the scores went up, both shouted with joy and hugged each other as if they had won. It was good enough to push them back into contention. They skated to a flowing waltz with changing rhythms to music from a Russian movie, showing more emotion than the defenders. Krylova and Ovsiannikov had more speed to the drinking song from La Traviata, sung by Luciano Pavarotti, but lacked the closeness of Anissina and Peizerat. If the French win the ice dance, it will be the first loss by a Russian or former Soviet couple in the ice dance since 1984. On Wednesday, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze preserved Russia's domination of the pairs event by winning a close decision over a Chinese pair that was better technically but not as graceful. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo had a repertoire of powerful throws, lifts and jumps. Their music choice, from the movie "Mulan," matched their power, with dynamic drums and fanfares. The Russians skated to a wordless coloratura soprano piece, delivering a soft performance almost as delicate as the vocal background. Although Berezhnaya fell on a double axel, it was their only error and they quickly swung back into the mood of soft skating featuring elegant lines and extension in lifts rather than the Chinese pair's fast-paced series of jumps. The Russians were rewarded with straight 5.9s for presentation. The best the Chinese could do were four 5.9s for technical merit. It was the 29th gold medal for couples from the former Soviet Union or Russia, all since 1965.Third went to Dorota Zagorska and Marius Siudek of Poland.
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