Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali delivered an extremely emotional performance of their "Immigrants" free dance, which held the audience spellbound throughout all four minutes of the program. Both skaters were overcome with emotions halfway through the dance, but the technical panel remained unaffected and downgraded their spin and twizzle sequence to level two. 
The judges decision added to the suspense, and when their score of 97.84 (47.10/50.74) points for fourth place was announced, neither the skaters nor the audience knew if it was going to be enough for the bronze. However, upon hearing that 197.85 points meant that they got the medal, the stadium erupted in an ovation.

Olympic ice dance champs nab first World title

2010 World Figure Skating Championships: Ice Dance (Free Dance) Recap
Golden Skate; by Anna Kondakova; March 26, 2010

The outcome of the ice dance competition at the 2010 World Championships has been in little doubt long before the start of the event. The level of the teams and the quality of their material have made it pretty clear who will place where, if everyone skates clean.
The Championships ended pretty much as predicted. Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won their first title, while USA's Meryl Davis and Charlie White and Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali took silver and bronze, respectively. It was also the first time the two latter teams have won a world medal.
The relative lack of intrigue, however, did not make the competition any less exciting, especially since the order of finish in the free dance was different from the final standings.
Virtue and Moir mesmerized the audience with their performance to Mahler's Symphony No. 5, but left a little room for improvement in what otherwise has been a brilliant free dance. Moir stepped out of a twizzle in sequence, which was downgraded to level three, and the team also received a 1.00 deduction for an extended lift.
Davis and White skated before their training mates and the duo set the audience on fire with their powerful performance to The Phantom of the Opera. The dance was as an excellent vehicle for them as it capitalizes on their ability to execute all elements, including step sequences, with lightning fast speed.... 
Faiella and Scali delivered an extremely emotional performance of their "Immigrants" free dance, which held the audience spellbound throughout all four minutes of the program. Both skaters were overcome with emotions halfway through the dance, but the technical panel remained unaffected and downgraded their spin and twizzle sequence to level two. 
The judges decision added to the suspense, and when their score of 97.84 (47.10/50.74) points for fourth place was announced, neither the skaters nor the audience knew if it was going to be enough for the bronze. However, upon hearing that 197.85 points meant that they got the medal, the stadium erupted in an ovation.
"Of course it was important for us to get a medal," said Scali, "but when we saw that we were in fourth in the Free Dance, we were happy anyway. This Championship was about never giving up, just keep fighting. We proved to ourselves that we are fighters, so we didn't really care. But when we saw that we were still third, of course we were really happy."
"It is very special," he continued. "It was a very, very hard competition for us. Federica was very sick right after the Olympic Games, and a week before the World Championships, we actually thought that we would withdraw. So last four days before the Worlds, we were back on the ice. It was really hard both physically and mentally, and I am just so proud of her. It was hard for me, because I was supporting her, but it was really unbelievable what she did in this competition."
The Italians plan to continue to compete for at least one more season.
"It was a long journey," said Scali. "I know, that these guys (Davis/White, Virtue/Moir) keep saying that we look young, but we are not. So it was a long journey and it was our dream to arrive here. We started to think about the future right after the Olympic Games, and we are pretty sure that we will be skating for at least one more year. After this medal, for sure there will be at least one more season."...
"The good thing was we didn't feel pressure," added Sinead. "We knew we maybe could pull up to fourth, but not third. Federica and Massimo skated well and I didn't feel any pressure to beat them, because I didn't think that was possible. Our performance was just for ourselves today."
Italy's Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte dropped out of the top ten after the skaters collided during the twizzle sequence, which resulted in a fall from Cappellini. Both their step sequences were graded only level two, and the second part of combination lift only level one. The devastated Italians finished 11th (164.52).
"Tonight it was very hard to skate," explained Lanotte. "We felt under pressure and we wanted to have a good performance, but we made an enormous mistake. No problem. Sometimes also champions make that kind of mistake. We recovered strongly as well as we could do."
"Errors teach us something as well," Lanotte concluded. "We learned a lot during this World Championships. We have to skate focused on elements and execution, but also giving the public all those emotions we feel everyday dancing together. The crowd in Turin is amazing, and I'll keep this public in my heart for the rest of my career."...
http://www.goldenskate.com/articles/2009/w_fd.shtml
 
 

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