Duchesnays Can’t Catch Soviet Skaters

He wore a torn striped shirt with a tie. She wore a tattered red dress. If there was a sequin or a feather on the ice, it was left behind by a previous ice dance team.

Skating a freestyle program Friday night at the world championships that depicted the difficulties of daily life for peasants in South America, the innovative brother and sister team of Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay earned the most perfect scores of 6.0 in a major competition since British dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1984.

But even though the Duchesnays’ daring freestyle program was a winner, they settled for second place. They could not overcome the lead defending champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko of the Soviet Union built in winning the first two phases of the competition.

In contrast to the Duchesnays, Klimova and Ponomarenko skated a traditional program to “My Fair Lady.” The reaction of the capacity crowd of 9,500 at the Halifax Metro Centre was exactly that: fair. The Duchesnays received a five-minute standing ovation.

Even though they represent France, the Duchesnays were raised in Canada. They have become the most popular skaters since Torvill and Dean, who won four world championships (1981-84) and an Olympic gold medal in 1984. All nine judges gave them perfect scores for artistic impression after that performance. The Duchesnays received five 6.0s for artistic impression here.