Figure Skating-Americans Chock and Bates skate to third straight ice dance title
BOSTON, March 29 (Reuters) - Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates danced to gold at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday to become the first team in 28 years to capture three consecutive world ice dance titles.
Leading by almost four points after their electrifying rhythm dance on Friday -- vast by ice dance standards -- Chock and Bates were almost perfect to score 131.88 points for their sophisticated free dance program to jazz classic "Take Five," for a total of 222.06.
Their final spin in which Chock balanced on Bates' outstretched foot had fans at TD Garden leaping to their feet seconds before the program ended.
Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won silver for the second consecutive season, scoring 130.10 for their elegant skate to the Annie Lennox cover of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" for a total 216.54.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson scored 207.11 for bronze to become the first British world ice dance medallists since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean capped a string of four straight victories in 1984.
Chock and Bates, six-times U.S. champions and married couple, are the first team to win three world titles in a row since Russians Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov claimed four straight between 1994 and 1997.
The victory sets the Americans up as favourites for next year's Milano-Cortina Olympics, where they will be aiming for their first Games ice dance medal. They were part of the U.S. squad that captured gold in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Games.
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