Americans Take Top Two Spots in Ice Dancing at Four Continents

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto Photo by George Rossano

Four Continents Results, News, Photos and Video

Now, it's on to Torino.

In what was simply a formality, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto went out Friday afternoon and blew away the field in the free dance, giving them their third straight title at the ISU Four Continents Championships. The order of the top four teams heading into the segment stayed the same, with Morgan Matthews and Max Zavozin winning the silver, Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir claiming the bronze, and Chantal Lefebvre and Arseni Markov, also from Canada, taking fourth.

As was their style all week, Belbin and Agosto skated conservatively, something they know they will have to change next month at the Olympic Winter Games.

“We had mostly level four and a few level threes, but we did eliminate the level twos that we saw earlier in the season,” Belbin said. “We obviously still have a couple of things to work on, but we've definitely upgraded our levels. That's what we wanted to see here, so we're very pleased with ourselves.”

The three-time U.S. champions performed several difficult lifts, including the final one which featured a split rotation. Their serpentine step sequence was sharp, fast and well-executed, and their circular was smooth and in sync. Their only miscue was when Agosto had trouble with the second twizzle sequence.

Belbin and Agosto's score of 102.22 in the free dance was almost 15 points higher than that of Matthews and Zavozin, and their overall score (199.73) was more than 28 points better than that of the runners-up

Not that they had to make any excuses for their performance, but they were affected by being so high above sea level.

“We've competed here (Colorado Springs) several times. It seems pretty consistent when the altitude hits us. It always seems to be right in the middle of our free dance,” Belbin said. “We were happy with the way we kept it together. I think it's just a good test for us to know under many different circumstances how we'll react.”

With this being their last scheduled competition of the year, Matthews and Zavozin skated with a purpose. Their twizzles – performed fast, close and in time – were especially strong, and their lifts were swift and powerful. Their footwork was executed well, albeit carefully.

Their free dance score of 87.96 was less than a point off their career best.

“We gained a lot of confidence in ourselves,” Matthews said. “We had a hard time at nationals, but we were really excited to come here because we didn't expect to…it was a really good feeling on the ice today to finish three clean programs.”

The same could not be said of Virtue and Moir, whose free dance contained three major errors: a trip by Virtue at the beginning of the program, a bobble by Moir on a one-armed catch lift and an awkward exit out of their last rotational lift. On the bright side, they stayed low on their spins and executed their challenging footwork with aplomb.

They both agreed that this experience will go a long way toward preparing them for their final competition of the season, the World Junior Championships in March.

“I just think we can soak up what Tanith and Ben and the other good skaters are doing,” Moir said. “We'll learn from the best in the world. It's great to get a chance to compete against all these guys that are going to the Olympics.”

The fourth-place team of Lefebvre and Markov attained a personal-best score of 82.37 in the free dance, although they seemed to be affected by the altitude, as the final portion of their program was less energetic than the first half.

There was another all-too-familiar factor they with which they to contend: a wardrobe malfunction. “It was really hard to run through it today,” Lefebvre said. “Plus, the elastic (on my costume) popped off in the middle of the program. But we did almost everything really clean…just at the end we were a little tired to go through the footwork.”

The third Canadian team in the competition, Mylene Girard and Bradley Yaeger, leapfrogged Americans Jamie Silverstein and Ryan O'Meara for the fifth spot. Silverstein and O'Meara, the 2006 U.S. bronze medalists, were not in top form all week, as both fell once, Silverstein in the original dance and O'Meara in the free dance.

Their spirits were up, however, after the competition.

“We're a little disappointed in how the skate went (today), but we skated best when it really counted and we were under pressure,” Silverstein said. “I can't wait to go to Italy, pick up some language and meet some really awesome athletes.”