Figure Skating: Israeli pair in 10th place at European Championships

The Israeli brother and sister, who finished 22nd in the 2006 Winter Olympics, need to end the event in the top 10 to meet the criteria for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

By ALLON SINAI
Israelis Alexandra and Roman Zaretski performed their compulsory dance in the European Figure Skating Championships on Tuesday, finishing in 10th place with a score of 30.16 points in Helsinki. The Zaretskis, who finished the Europeans in eighth position last year, will perform their original dance on Thursday and complete the competition with the free dance on Friday. The Israeli brother and sister, who finished 22nd in the 2006 Winter Olympics, need to end the event in the top 10 to meet the criteria for the 2010 Vancouver Games. Russian ice dancers Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski took the lead after the compulsory dance after being awarded 37.43 points for the Finnstep. Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy were second with 36.03 points, followed by British siblings Sinead Kerr and John Kerr with 34.89 points. Defending champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia received only 33.53 points after Shabalin fell during the routine. That was still enough for fifth place behind French pair Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat with 34.38. Four more Israelis are taking part in the European Championships. Ekaterina and Fedor Sokolov will compete in the pairs' competition, Jenna Syken takes the place of the injured Tamar Katz in the ladies' event and Maxim Shipov takes part in the men's contest. AP contributed to this report