Russian duo takes early lead in ice dancing

Russian duo Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin took the early lead in the ice dance after the compulsory section at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships.

The Russians amassed 40.77 points, while Turin Olympic silver medallists Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto were just 1.12 points behind. Belbin and Agosto finished fourth at the 2008 World Championships.

Skating brilliantly to the Spanish-style dance music Paso Doble, the Russian dancers are back at the Worlds after missing last year's event due to Shabalin's knee injury.

"It was good. We maintained the pattern throughout all three sequences," Shabalin said. "We pulled ourselves together. We had to show the character of the dance."

The Grand Prix Final silver medallists are looking to improve on their fifth-place finish at the Worlds in 2007.

"The Paso Doble is a little harder emotionally for me than the Waltz," said Domnina. "But it was interesting to get into a different image."

Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who finished runner-up at the Worlds in 2008, were lying third 39.37 and newly-crowned US champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White finished fourth 37.73.

"Our goal was to dance and really sell it," Moir said.

Belbin said the Paso Doble gave them the spark they needed to kick off this event on a postive note.

"It has been a fight for so long that we felt the Paso was the perfect dance to open the door for this event," Belbin said. "It is only the beginning and we feel like we want even more."

Russia's Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski rounded out the top five with a 37.34 points. They won their first European title in January.

The ice dancing competition is wide open this year after reigning World titlists Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder withdrew because of a shoulder injury to Delobel. She underwent surgery in January.

Tuesday's compulsory dance was worth 20 percent of the final score while Thursday's original dance counts for 30 percent and Friday's free dance makes up 50 percent.

The winning pair earns 67,500 dollars in prize money.





Bleier