Bittersweet result

Deserving Shen/Zhao win gold, but judging concerns remain

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) -- Unlike the last major pairs figure skating competition staged on American ice, there was only one set of gold medals handed out Wednesday, with Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China successfully defending their world championship title.

It was the result demanded by the large crowd at the MCI Center as they stood and cheered the Chinese pair through the final 45 seconds of their acrobatic and elegant program and the judges -- most of them -- agreed.

Yet, despite a clearly superior performance that ended in a prolonged standing ovation and four perfect presentation marks of 6.0, at least one judge had the Chinese pair ranked second behind Russian silver medalists Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, suggesting that there is still much work to be done in the painful overhauling of figure skating's scoring system.

A little over a year ago at the Salt Lake City Olympics, Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze and Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared the gold after disputed judging, plunging the sport into a controversy that refuses to go away.

In Washington, the new judging system that has come under sharp criticism for its lack of accountability left many in the audience confused and bewildered when a wide range of marks flashed on the scoreboard.

Dismayed by their sport's tarnished image and lacking confidence in its current leadership and direction, a high profile group of athletes, coaches and officials announced on the eve of the competition the formation of the fledgling World Skating Federation (WSF) as an alternative to the governing body, the International Skating Union (ISU).

But all were in agreement on Wednesday, with judges, spectators and skaters saying the Chinese couple deserved the gold.

In fact, the loudest boos of the evening were reserved for beleaguered ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta when introduced to present the medals.

"They had a great skate," conceded Marinin. "Today was a great performance and an interesting competition.

"Today the Chinese pair was better."

Even Zhao and Shen were impressed by their performance.

It was not only a brilliant but brave effort by the Chinese pair, who were nearly forced from the event when Shen injured her ankle earlier in the week during a practice session.

"We feel very happy because we defended our championship," said Zhao. "We had a very complicated feeling the last few days because my partner had an ankle injury and we even thought of withdrawing.

"But this is the most important competition and with an injection we knew we could go on."

 

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