German world champs win Skate Canada pairs

Reigning two-time world pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy captured gold at Skate Canada on Saturday with a brand new programme set to the film soundtrack Out of Africa.

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany skate their free skate in the pairs competition at the 2009 Homesense Skate Canada International in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Savchenko and Szolkowy captured gold at Skate Canada on Saturday with a brand new programme set to the film soundtrack Out of Africa.

The Germans held the audience spellbound, scoring 132.55 for the near flawless and passionate performance. They earned 206.71 points in all - the highest total score ever recorded in pairs competition. It is believed that the perfect score of 10 one judge awarded them for the performance component was a first under the current judging system.

Russia?s Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov took the silver medal with their impressive Love Story programme, but were well back of the Germans, earning 119.91 for the free skating and 185.71 overall.

Canadians Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison claimed bronze for their programme set to The Way We Were.

The impact of their routine was lessened by shaky landings on his indivual Axel jump, on her triple salchow and on their throw triple loop. Their overall points total of 166.93 told the story.

After the Grand Prix in France, where Savchenko and Szolkowy had a disastrous skate in the finale and settled for bronze, their coach Ingo Steuer decided to create a new free skating routine in the five weeks they had before coming here.

Said Savchenko, "We felt good during our programme. There was one mistake (they both turned a planned double Axel into a single), but it felt very good that we did what we do in practice."

Skate Canada is the last event of six in the ISU Grand Prix Figure Skating series.

The six men, women, pairs and ice dance couples who accumulate the most points in their two appearances in Grand Prix events qualify for the prestigious Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in two weeks.

The Germans and Russians, who won the event in Paris, have qualified. Dube and Davison are the first alternates.

Earlier in the day, Canadian ice dancer Tessa Virtue just wanted to start over after she uncharacteristically slipped off her edge twice within 30 seconds in the midst of their Spanish Flamenco dance.

The faux-pas clearly rattled Virtue and partner Scott Moir, whose ambition is to claim gold on Olympic ice in Vancouver in February. The world bronze medallists are not used to such mishaps.

Fortunately, their miscues came between the required elements and Moir?s grip on Virtue kept her from hitting the ice so the deductions they incurred were not as severe as they otherwise could have been.

They still posted the highest score (60.57) among the eight couples and held onto the lead they had established in Friday?s compulsory dance.

Virtue and Moir take 101.26 points into Sunday?s free dance final.

French couple Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat are second with 91.60 points, while another Canadian couple, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, are third with 83.36.

Competition continued Saturday with the men's and women's free skates.