(March 23, 2004)

It was an incredible evening of pair skating at the 2004 International Skating Union (ISU) World Figure Skating Championships last night.

After the short program, two Canadian teams stand in the top-10, with Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto in eighth-place and 2004 Canadian Pair Champions Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin placing 10th.

The 22-year-old Langlois, of Grand Mére, Que., and Archetto, 31, of Montreal, skated an outstanding performance, completing all required elements cleanly. They were in perfect unison throughout the program, which was highlighted during their spectacular footwork sequence.

The judges rewarded Langlois and Archetto with marks ranging from 4.9 to 5.5 for technical merit and from 4.9 to 5.6 for presentation.

“We’re very pleased with our performance and I’m very pleased with my partner,” said Archetto.

Marcoux, 23, of Gatineau, Que., and Buntin, 23, of Kelowna, B.C., who are competing in their first World Championship as a team, also delivered a strong performance, despite Marcoux’s fall on the side-by-side triple toe loops. The other elements in their program were all solid.

Marcoux and Buntin’s marks for technical merit ranged from 4.0 to 5.1, while their marks for presentation ranged from 4.5 to 5.6.

Standing in first-place after the short program are last year’s silver medallists Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia, who received one presentation mark of 6.0 for their performance.

Placing second was the Russian team of Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, and finishing in third-place were Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China.

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, the 2003 World Pair Champions, fell on their side-by-side triple toe loops and stand in fourth-place.

The pair teams will perform their free skates on Wednesday evening. Marcoux and Buntin will skate first in the third of five groups, while Langlois and Archetto have drawn to skate last in the second last group.