| | Associated Press
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario -- World ice dance champions Marina
Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, acting out in a
challenging new free dance, won the Skate Canada International
Sunday.
"We could see that people like this program already," Peizerat
said of the routine derived from the Trans Siberian Orchestra's
rock opera "Beethoven's Last Night."
It was the seventh straight victory for Anissina and Peizerat,
including all six meets they entered last season.
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovskiy, skating frenetically to
Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Variations of Paganini," were second, only
the second athletes from Israel to ever win a medal at a major
International Skating Union senior meet.
"This is our first international win," Chait said. "We've
wanted this for so long."
Canadian champions Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon took
third.
Chait, 25, was born of Russian parents in Kfar Saba, Israel, and
grew up in New Jersey. When she was 6, she was taken to
Rockefeller Center and skated on the outdoor rink amid the
skyscrapers of Manhattan.
"They saw that I wasn't afraid to skate," she recalls.
"Lessons were next."
Sakhnovskiy, 25, was born in Moscow, and hooked up with Chait
four years ago. Both were looking for new partners and, during a
visit to Israel four years ago, he arranged to skate with Chait.
They struck up a partnership almost immediately.
"It's very special to skate for Israel," she said.
They train in Connecticut with Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova.
They'll compete in Israel in December at a recreation center near
the border with Lebanon, the only facility in the country with
artificial ice.
The only other Israeli with a major medal is Michael Shmerkin,
who earned silver at Skate Canada in 1994 and 1995. | |
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