French win ice dancing gold

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Marina Anissina and Gwendel Peizerat gave France its first Olympic figure skating gold medal in 70 years Monday night by winning the ice dancing competition.

Anissina and Peizerat skated first in the final flight and produced a flowing routine.

"We skated really well," said Peizerat, who won bronze in 1998 at Nagano. "And this was the best program we ever did."

By holding off Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh in a 5-4 vote, Anissina and Peizerat became the first figure skating gold medalists from France since Andree and Pierre Brunet won pairs gold in 1932.

Lobacheva and Averbukh were happy to win silver medals.

"The audience was wonderful, but it was hard to skate," said Averbukh. "I don't really know why. At the very end, I thought, 'Thanks, God. We made it through.'"

Italians Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio weren't very thankful. They won their country's first-ever figure skating medal, then refused to comment. Margaglio fell during the routine.

Anissina and Peizerat played to an American crowd with a liberty theme that included parts of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed "I Have a Dream" speech in their music.

The French pair skated well, but their marks of 5.7-5.9 for technical merit and 5.8-5.9 for presentation left room for the couples yet to skate.

Performing to "I Will Survive," the Italians were up next, but Margaglio fell during a required step sequence, leaving Fusar Poli on the brink of tears and the couple with marks as low as 5.5 for merit.

Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz then wowed the audience while skating to a Michael Jackson medley, but lost their balance in the final lift and tumbled together -- costing them a bronze medal.

Bourne got up laughing, but Kraatz seemed shocked as the pair

finished fourth.

"I think it was the best skate that we've ever done," Bourne said. "At the last second, we let go. It's too bad because we might have won the bronze."

Lobacheva and Averbukh went last and skated well to "A Time for Peace" routine that contained spectacular lifts and fast-paced footwork.

A fantastic program resulted in scores up to 5.8 for merit and 5.9 presentation, but the gold medal came down to a 5-4 vote in favor of the French tandem.