Eurosport commentator says they should have taken top spot; receive 20% of total marks.
By LIONEL GAFFEN
The opening Compulsory Dance - the Tango Romantica - saw a number of surprising results at the European Championships, as Israelis Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky were only able to hold down the fifth spot after the opening event.
Chait and Sakhnovsky rated a 34.79 combined score, worth 20 percent of the total marks, in spite of a strong performance that elicited praise from the Eurosport commentator who added that, in his opinion, they should have taken the top spot.
In that top spot, however, are Elena Grushina and Roman Kostomarov of Ukraine, last year's silver medalists, with a 38.82 score, closely followed by the comeback team of Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania with 38.34, whose last competition was the 2002 World Championships.
World and European champions Tatiana Navka and Ruslan Goncharov of Russia stood third with 38.21.
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France are in fourth place at 35.66, even with a one-point deduction for Schoenfelder having taken a tumble during their performance.
Israel's Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky managed a decent placing, taking the 17th spot among the 22 competitorst. Their performance was very competent given this is their first European performance.
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