Virtue and Moir maintain advantage to clinch world title

CANADA'S Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir picked up where they left off in Vancouver following up their Olympic title with gold at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD: Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir fail to reach the heights of their Vancouver free dance but do enough to collect their first world title (Getty Images)

 

The couple have done their utmost to dodge the difficult questions about their future and their relationship off the ice since winning Olympic gold at the first attempt in front of their home crowd last month.

But if there were any questions as to their supremacy on the ice, Virtue and Moir let their skates do the talking in Turin.

The duo scored 224.43 points overall to finish 1.4 ahead of Olympic silver medallists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who were forced to settle second again despite some sensational dances in Italy.

Americans Davis and White won Friday's free dance with a season's best 110.49 on the night but the Canadians' effort, while inferior to their stunning dance to win gold in Vancouver, scored 108.83 points and enough to secure the gold medal.

Virtue and Moir have assumed a greater confidence since Vancouver with a personal best in the compulsory dance  followed by a stunning world record in the original dance on Thursday.

And the Canadians knew how much they needed to raise their level when facing their American rivals.

"Whenever we go away from home to compete with Charlie and Meryl we know we have to bring our A game and we are really happy with our performance," said Moir.

"Charlie and Meryl performed so well but the atmosphere here was great and we love skating in front of the European fans.

"We could feel the atmosphere in the building and the energy was brilliant.

"After the problems we had last year with Tessa's injury, we had to work hard to get to this point and we have been pushing ourselves in training.

"We are so happy with our two titles and hopefully we can use this as motivation to move on to achieve even more and get even better."

But it was always going to be difficult to match their ethereal Vancouver performance in the free dance and a couple of timing errors from Moir brought their score down.

Davis and White have also stepped up to the mark in 2010, taking over from compatriots Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto as the USA's premier ice dance couple.

But while the Americans finished on top at the Grand Prix Final in December, the Canadians have proved themselves on the biggest stage, first in Vancouver last month and now in Turin.

And White insisted he and Davis couldn't complain about the result, having given their all to score a career best mark in their final dance.

"We really left everything we had to give out on the ice and we knew we had to give it our all which we did," said White.

"Things have changed a lot over the past few months but we could not have given any more tonight."

Italian duo Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, who finished fifth in Vancouver, pleased the home crowd taking bronze with an overall score of 197.85, but the North American couples were streets ahead.

And if the world champions were to take a break in 2011, Davis and White would have few contenders for supremacy next season.

Meanwhile, British siblings John and Sinead Kerr came a very creditable fifth as they picked up a season's best 93.32 for their free dance to finish with a total of 189.11.