Elena ROMANOVSKAYA / Alexander GRACHEV from Russia became World Champions in the dance competition.

The Ice Dancing competition concluded with the Free Dance. In what was an exciting event, the top couples showed a high level of skating.

Romanovskaya/Alexander Grachev
Overnight leaders Elena Romanovskaya/Alexander Grachev (RUS) took the ice first in the final flight. They performed an expressive Tango routine and kept good speed throughout the program. They showed fast footwork and interesting lifts, including one where Grachev pulls his partner through his legs and up.

The Muscovites scored marks from 5.2 to 5.7 for required elements/technical merit and from 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation. Now they had to wait and watch their competitors.

Morgan Matthews/Maxim Zavozin
Next were Morgan Matthews/Maxim Zavozin (USA), who danced to Maurice Ravel's “Bolero”. The US-Junior Champions put out a clean and solid dance, they seemed to feel the music very well and had excellent unison.

Their marks ranged from 5.1 to 5.5 (A) and from 5.3 to 5.6 (B).

Nora Hoffmann/Attila Elek
Then it was the turn of Nora Hoffmann/Attila Elek of Hungary, who stood in second place after the Compulsory Dances and the Original Dance.

The Junior Grand Prix Champions produced a strong performance to the “Dance with Me” soundtrack, executing dynamic footwork and twizzles in both directions.

They were awarded marks from 5.1 to 5.7 for required elements/technical merit and from 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation.

They lost on a six to three split decision on the panel of judges against Romanovskaya/Grachev.

Gold
As a result the Russian couple won the gold after being a two-time bronze medalist in 2002 and 2003. Hoffmann/Elek claimed the silver medal like last year, and Matthews/Zavozin surged from 11 th place in 2003 to win the bronze medal. Natalia Mikhailova/Arkadi Sergeev (RUS) came in fourth with an entertaining Latin American medley.

"it was just a great feeling"
“I don't think it was our best performance today, but we're very happy with it, and the coaches are also satisfied”, Romanovskaya said. “We skated first in the warm up group, so we just did what we can do and left. When we knew that we had won, it was just a great feeling. Who never won, doesn't understand this feeling. I'll never forget this moment.”

"we skated really well”
Hoffmann/Elek both were disappointed that they didn't win the title, but they were pleased with their performance. “It probably was the best of the season, we skated really well”, Hoffmann explained.

They are going on to the senior World Championships in Dortmund in less than three weeks. “Maybe we won't practice tomorrow, but we'll leave directly after the Exhibition on Sunday and then we'll start working again on Monday”, Hoffmann announced.

"That was a big thing for us"
“We felt very confident in our performance”, Matthews told the press. “It definitely was one of our best. We had a lot of good performance with this Free Dance this year. We're of course very excited to get the bronze medal. That was a big thing for us.”

Romanovskaya/Grachev and Hoffmann/Elek will move on to the senior ranks next season while Matthews/Zavozin intend to stay in juniors.

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