PRAGUE (AP) — Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France improved their rhythm dance to take a commanding lead in the ice dance at the figure skating world championships on Friday.
The crowd in O2 Arena was applauding the Olympic champions before the start of their unrivaled dance to music by Madonna, and they delighted the spectators from the opening twizzle sequence to a rotational lift at the end.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron hugged after seeing their personal-best score of 92.74 points, which was better than the 90.18 they received for their rhythm dance at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Olympic bronze medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada were a distant second with 86.45 heading to Saturday′s free dance.
Britain′s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, third at last year’s worlds, were third again with 85.09.
U.S. pair Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, fifth at the Olympics, were lying fourth, and teammates Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were seventh.
At the Olympics, Beaudry and Cizeron narrowly beat U.S. stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates to the gold in a result that sparked a furore over judging.
Chock and Bates decided not to pursue a fourth straight ice dance world championship, joining Olympic teammate Alysa Liu in withdrawing from the worlds, a common decision for skaters who compete at the Winter Games.
The French couple was created this season when Beaudry, who previously skated for Canada, was left without a partner after Nikolaj Sorensen faced allegations of sexual maltreatment. Beaudry teamed with multiple world champion Cizeron, who retired after winning the 2022 Olympics with Gabriella Papadakis.
Later Friday at the worlds, the retiring Kaori Sakamoto of Japan goes after her fourth individual title in her farewell free skate.
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