www.startribune.com/sports/42040592.htmlDomnina-Shabalin win dance title at world championships, Belbin-Agosto go home with silver
By NANCY ARMOUR , Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin don't mess around. Their first medal at the world championships, and the Russians made it a gold.
Domnina and Shabalin's powerful yet composed free dance was just enough to hold off training mates Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, giving the Russians the ice dance title at the World Figure Skating Championships on Friday night. Domnina and Shabalin finished with 206.30 points, 1.22 ahead of the Americans.
It was Russia's first gold medal at the world championships since 2005.
"There were mixed emotions," Belbin said. "We train with them every day, so we certainly appreciate all their hard work and we can definitely see their qualities. We just wish we were not marked down on (that twizzle), from 4s to 3s. We don't know why."
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada won the bronze medal. Barely. They edged Meryl Davis and Charlie White by a mere 0.04 — a margin usually seen in swimming, not figure skating.
Domnina and Shabalin's best finish at worlds had been fifth place in 2007. They were heavily favored last year, but had to withdraw after he aggravated a knee injury.
Now the title is theirs. When their marks were posted, Shabalin grinned and pumped his fists.
"Now I feel great," he said.
The power was undeniable, evident in every lift, spin and step they did in their "Spartacus" dance. But this wasn't simple brute strength, it was combined with a grace and balance that made their lifts like a piece of performance art. Many were done with him on one skate; that alone is incredibly difficult, but she was also unassisted, meaning she was working just as hard as he was.
On one lift, she faced him while he was crouched down, put her skate between his knees and rose up, extending her other leg behind her. It was as majestic as it was moving, yet he showed no signs of how difficult the move was.
They had wonderful unison, looking like shadow images as they flew across the ice. And their expressions gave the perfect portrayal of "Spartacus."
"Because it's so amazing and the audience is so great," Shabalin said when asked how he and Domnina were able to win.
That Belbin and Agosto were even able to win the silver medal is a testament to their talent. They switched coaches last April after a disappointing showing at worlds, where they failed to win a medal for the first time since 2004. They now train with Olympic gold medalists Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, and the coaches spent the first few months ripping the five-time U.S. champions' style apart and remaking them.
In December, Agosto herniated a disk in his back, forcing him off the ice for a month at the most inopportune time of the season.
"It's been a very long and difficult road," he said. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We're so happy to have gotten through all of this."
Parts of Belbin and Agosto's "Tosca" program were incredibly powerful. Their lifts were intricate and difficult, breathing life into the century-old tale of angst and tortured love. On one, she stood in his hand in a complete split, her other leg straight up to the ceiling. In one fluid move, he turned her upside down and twisted her around as if twirling a rifle.
They have focused on their skating skills since switching coaches, and the work showed in their superior speed and edge quality.
"We had so many changes, changing coaches, who changed everything about the way we perform. This program has allowed us to develop a new side of ourselves, a new and more mature sense," Agosto said. "It was amazing to compete it and to perform it."
But there were little details that needed just a touch more polishing. Twizzles that were ever so slightly off, a patch of footwork that seemed a touch too frantic. Hardly major flaws, and no surprise, really, considering the time they missed with his injury and the fact they hadn't competed since November.
When you're chasing gold, however, even the slightest details count.
"I feel really happy to perform a clean program and make it the best we've competed it," Belbin said. "Of course, we haven't really competed it since Cup of China."
Davis and White had quite possibly the best free dance of the night, a dramatic and mesmerizing performance to "Samson and Delilah." Not that you'd know it from the results, however.
"You've got to build your way up," White said. "It's a matter of taking little steps getting there."
Their twizzles — traveling spins — were the fastest of the night, so quick you could only see flashes of their blades. Their spins were intricate and impressive, and their edge quality was so fine coaches will be using it as a teaching aid. They expressed emotion from their faces all the way to their skate laces, and their chemistry could be seen all the way up to the rafters.
But ice dance is still ice dance, even in this new judging system, and Davis and White are still considered up-and-comers while Virtue and Moir were last year's silver medalists. Though they were ahead of the Canadians in the free dance, it wasn't by enough to give them the bronze medal.
The crowd roared when it saw the scores from the free dance, then booed when they saw the overall results.
"Obviously it's going to be a close result and somebody is going to be upset," White said. "Obviously the crowd in the U.S. was a little upset. It happens in the sport."