Retired Italians upstaged Navka and Kostomarov
Most boring and subjective kind of figure-skating - compulsory dance in competitions of dance duets - ended with a loud sensation. World champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov were unexpectedly upstaged by Italians Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, who returned from retirement to lead the ice dancing event at the Winter Olympics.
Russian pair Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov got high scores and were in lead until Italian pair Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio came to the ice. This was their first performance after 4-year break and they never skated within the frames of new judging system. Ravensburg Waltz of Italian pair was warmly welcomed by Italian fans on Palavela rink. Compulsory dance score of 38.78 flashed Italians up on top of the leaderboard.
However, the Russians are losing only 0.58 of a point to Fusar Poli and Margaglio after the first stage of the three-phase competition. With 1.42 points separating the top six couples, the rankings could easily change under the new accumulative-points scoring system after Sunday`s original dance. Bulgarian duo Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski lie third.
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