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Lithuanians file ice dancing protest Posted: Saturday March 23, 2002 6:40 AMNAGANO, Japan (AP) -- The Lithuanian Skating Federation has filed a protest with the International Skating Union over the fourth place finish of their ice dancers' final at the World Figure Skating Championships. In a letter late Friday to the ISU, Kasiemieras Starkevicius, the president of the Lithuanian Skating Federation said: "We felt the result for third place was clear for our team and we protest the third place awarded in a controversial 5-4 split to the Israeli couple." Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski won the first medal for Israel at the world championships by coming in third while Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas finished fourth. In a press conference Saturday, Vanagas was critical of the way ice dancing is judged. "It's just unfortunate that the judging system kills the competitive nature of the sport," he said. Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh won the gold medal and Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz were second. More than 30 skaters and coaches from the ice dancing competition -- including American champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev and French coach Muriel Zazoui -- signed a petition in favor of Lithuania's protest. The controversy comes at a time when the ISU is trying to get over an ice dancing scandal that shook last month's Salt Lake City Olympics and highlighted the shortcomings of the existing judging system. On Friday, ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta said radical changes would soon be made in how figure skating is judged, saying the existing system is not adequate. ISU officials declined to comment on the Lithuanian protest.
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