EVERETT — Because they win more often than they lose, particularly on American ice, Sunday’s runner-up finish could have been an aw-shucks experience for U.S. ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto.
Instead, Belbin and Agosto — winners of five straight United States figure skating championships and the last four Skate Americas they entered — came away feeling encouraged and even a little elated.
Encouraged because they are progressing under new coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponossov, who have redefined and redirected their skaters’ training with an eye toward the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.
Elated because they skated a smooth, elegant and technically sound free dance on Sunday to wrap up the Skate America ice dancing competition at Comcast Arena.
“We felt like we blew the free dance out of the water,” said a grinning Agosto.
The judges agreed, awarding Belbin and Agosto a high score of 91.43 in the last of their three programs. Still, that mark was not enough to erase their deficits in Friday’s compulsory dance and Saturday’s original dance programs — they finished second in the compulsories and third in the originals — and they were unable to overtake Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France for the gold medal.
Delobel and Schoenfelder, who had a free dance score of 90.89, finished with a total of 187.64. Belgin and Agosto collected the silver medal with a total of 186.53.
“I think we skated the best program so far in this season,” said Schoenfelder, who won the world ice dancing championship with Delobel in March. “So I think we have to look on it as very good. We took pleasure to skate it and tried to give emotion to the audience.”
Belbin and Agosto finished fourth at those same world championships, and immediately after changed coaches. In the ensuing six months, they have undertaken an ambitious new training regimen designed to deliver gold in Vancouver.
“Honestly, this (outcome) is not disappointing at all,” Agosto said. “Natalia and Gennadi are pushing us to think about own our goals and not to worry so much about other skaters, or even to compete against them. Really, we have to compete against ourselves. And so our goal was to come out here and skate what we’ve prepared up to this point. To skate it 100 percent and put as much emotion into it as we can.
“At this point in the season,” he went on, “we still have a lot of work to do. But for this competition we really accomplished what we set out to do. So no disappointment. We’re very happy with where we are. And like I keep saying, it’s a process. This was the first step and there are many steps to go. It’s like a pyramid and each time we get on the ice it’s another step up, another step up.”
“I feel like this was the first free dance we’ve skated in several years where we really tried not to hold anything back,” added Belbin. “It felt incredible, and I really hope this is a platform from which we can build upon toward the world championships (in Los Angeles in March).”
The ice dancing bronze medal went to Sinead Kerr and her brother John Kerr of Great Britain. They finished with 180.20 points.
Fourth place went to Americans Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, who had 175.66 and the third-best free dance score with 88.84. The 18-year-old Samuelson and 19-year-old Bates, the 2008 world junior ice dancing champions, were crowd favorites with their cheery, energetic performances, and they showed they’re ready to contend at the senior level of international figure skating.
“This was definitely a big breakthrough for us,” Bates said. “We’ve always been looking forward to this week, to making our senior debut, and I don’t think we could ask for much more. This was a stacked lineup, and I think we proved that we belong up here with the seniors.”
“This is definitely exciting, that’s for sure,” Samuelson said. “And the crowd was incredible.”
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