Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh were on ``enemy ground'' when they heard the wild reception for Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz.
But one lovely spin around the ballroom dance floor was enough for the Russians to win over the crowd. And the judges.
Lobacheva and Averbukh, the reigning world champions, won the original dance Thursday at the World Figure Skating Championships, barely edging the Canadians.
Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski of Bulgaria were third going into yesterday's free dance, worth 50 percent of the final score.
``The audience knows the Canadian couple better than us, and received them better,'' Averbukh said. ``Among the 14 judges on the panel, there was no Russian judge and that made us nervous. We were happy that the audience didn't whistle when our marks came up and we were in first.''
Yagudin's view
Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin got to experiment with the judging system being developed by the ISU and was hopeful it will help the sport.
Yagudin, who is not competing this year because of a hip injury, but plans to come back next season, said Thursday a change is in order. He claimed the interim system is not an improvement on the traditional scoring format.
``I see more positive sides than negative sides and I am sure it will help figure skating,'' Yagudin said. ``I was really against what is going on now. We still need to try this new system under competition and see how it works.''
One thing that disappoints Yagudin is the lack of voice within the sport for the skaters.
``I was upset when [ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta] said, `Why do we have to listen to the skaters?' The ISU at some time will have to listen to the coaches and skaters."
Hall of famers
Olympic champions Dorothy Hamill and Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko were honored by the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame on Thursday.
Also recognized during the world championships were Maribel Vinson Owen and Janet Lynn.
All five recently were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Hamill won the 1976 gold medal at the Innsbruck Games and her hairstyle became a fashion craze for the era.
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