Russians win pairs gold
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ByEurosport
Published 24/03/2004 at 21:41 GMT
Russians Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin captured the pairs gold medal at the world figure skating championships in Dortmund on Wednesday. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the silver medal and fellow Chinese team mates Pang Qing and Tong Jian took the br
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Totmianina and Marinin finally won a pairs world title with a graceful free skating programme.
The Russians, silver medallists at the last two world championships, held on to their lead from the short programme to claim the first title of the Dortmund festival.
Defending champions Shen and Zhao had to be content with the silver despite a flawless performance.
The Chinese pair put forth by far the most impressive effort in the free programme but they had undermined their chances of a third consecutive crown by placing fourth in Monday's short programme after Zhao fell on a triple toeloop.
Ten of the 14 judges gave Shen and Zhao 6.0s for presentation on Wednesday while two gave them the perfect mark for technical merit but it was not enough for gold.
Under the new judging policy, nine of the 14 scores are selected at random to determine results.
The winners and the bronze medallists each received one perfect 6.0 for presentation from the panel.
"It was a tough competition and the level was very high," said Totmianina, who embraced her partner after they skated to a theme suitably called Art on Ice.
"Before we started we smiled at each other and then we just focused on what we had to do," she added.
Zhao could not help feeling guilty after stumbling on Monday but he and Shen did make amends with a fantastic free skate that was met with roars of appreciation from the crowd.
"I was very angry with myself and depressed after the short programme," Zhao said.
"Today all my anger is gone. We're so happy to have received so many 6.0s, but I think we can do even better than that."
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