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China wins first figure skating gold

An inspired performance by Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo has given China its first ever Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
Jessica Dube, Bryce Davison
Canada’s Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison finished sixth in the pairs figure skating Monday.

VANCOUVER — An inspired performance by Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo has given China its first ever Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

Buoyed by a record-setting short program heading into Monday’s action, the three-time world champions in pairs figure skating scored 139.91 on their free skate for a total score of 216.57.

The husband and wife team, skating to “Adagio” choreographed by Canadian Lori Nichol, won bronze at both the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, and came back from a three-year retirement for one last shot at Olympic gold.

The gold-medal performance snapped a Russian stranglehold on the top of the podium that stretched back to 1964. Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier shared gold with Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Canadians Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul were the last non-Russians to stand alone atop the podium, in 1960 at Squaw Valley.

China’s Pang Qing and Tong Jian fought back from a fourth-place finish in the short program to win silver, scoring 141.81 to win the long with a flawless skate for a total score of 213.31.

Two-time defending world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, who trailed Shen and Zhao by less than a point after the short program, won bronze with 134.64 points in a shaky free skate in which Szolkowy fell on a double Axel. They scored 210.60 overall, Savchenko fighting back tears afterward.

Jessica Dube of St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que., and Bryce Davison of Huntsville, Ont., finished sixth, scoring 121.75 points for their emotional but error-filled rendition of Marvin Hamlisch’s The Way We Were. They scored 187.11 points overall.

Much like their short program, Dube and Davison’s routine was undermined by missteps. Dube fell on the same triple Salchow that proved costly a night earlier, stepped out of the throw triple Lutz, and Davison missed the change of edges on their combination spin.

Anabelle Langlois of Hull, Que., and Cody Hay of Edmonton, scored 179.97 points to finish ninth. Langlois and Hay, who skated to Grand Canyon Suite, missed all of last season while Langlois recovered from a broken fibula.

The Canadians got off to a rocky start when Langlois fell on the side-by-side triple Salchows, then late in their program, she two-footed her landing on a throw triple flip.