CIS Wins Pairs Again

By any other name, skaters from the former Soviet Union continue to dominate figure skating’s pairs competition. For the 25th time in the last 28 years, a team from there finished first in the World Championships.

Now representing the Commonwealth of Independent States, the gold medalists from the Winter Olympics, Natalia Mishkutionok and Artur Dmitriev, received perfect scores of 6.0 for artistic impression from four of nine judges Thursday night at the Oakland Coliseum Arena to successfully defend their world title.

Czechoslovakia’s Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny finished second. Canada’s Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler were third.

After finishing third last year, Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa dropped to eighth, two places below their Olympic finish.