Skaters Chait, Sakhnovsky finish sixth [pg. 12]

By LIONEL GAFFEN
Israeli Ice Dance duo Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky finished in sixth place at the World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary, Canada on Saturday. Despite a strong performance in both their Original Dance and Free Dance routines, the Israeli No 1 pairing were unable to move up from the position they held after Friday's Compulsory Dance. In the final Free Dance, they skated to Ravel's Bolero, which 20 years ago had been the signature piece of the renowned British Olympic gold medal winners Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. But Chait and Sakhnovsky weren't able to duplicate their medal success. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post from Calgary, Chait said she was pleased with the pair's overall performance. "I feel good that we skated really well," she said. "Over the years we've always managed to stay near the top, and have been consistently at or near the sixth spot, and we're proud of the way we've presented our country and I'm looking forward to returning to Israel." Fellow Israelis Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky managed to continue to show improvement, and moved gradually from their 24th spot in the compulsory dance, to finish in 20th place overall, in their first World championship. The competition was won by Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, the first skaters to win a gold medal for Bulgaria, to go with their silver from 2004 and the bronze a year before that. Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, the home town favorites, who have never been near a podium during their career, narrowly missed snatching the gold by a fraction of a point, and wound up receiving the silver, which duplicated the feat of Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz in 2002, the year that Chait and Sakhnovsky won their bronze. Olympic silver medalists, Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, had to settle for the bronze, after winning silver at last year's Worlds. Another Israeli, Roman Serov, finished in 18th place in the men's competition faltering only once in his free skate performance. The Israeli National Championships will take place at the Canada Center in Metulla on March 29 and 30.