Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States
Madison Chock and Evan Bates will attempt to become just the second Americans to win gold in ice dancing at the figure skating world championships after taking the lead in the short dance with a career-best score yesterday.
Chock and Bates, the reigning U.S. champions, scored 74.47 to outpace Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada in second and defending world champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy in third.
“We’ve never been more prepared for an event or trained harder for an event so that gives us the utmost confidence,” Bates said.
The only other Americans to win a world ice dancing title were Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won gold in 2011 and 2013, in addition to Olympic gold last year in Sochi. The duo haven’t competed since the Olympics, but were expected to take part in the world championships opening ceremony later Wednesday.
Weaver and Poje were the favorites coming into Shanghai having won all five international events they competed in this season, including the Grand Prix Finals and Four Continents Championships.
“We’ve had the weight a little bit this whole season and we put it on ourselves,” Weaver said. “Regardless of the result right now, we’re so happy with how we’ve been able to shoulder that pressure and funnel it into the performance.”
Chock and Bates also led after the short dance at Four Continents in South Korea last month before Weaver and Poje came back to edge them for the gold.
“We know we can’t rest,” Bates said. “We have to absolutely attack the (long) program and skate as though we were coming from behind.”
Cappellini and Lanotte have had a difficult year with health issues and fatigue after a whirlwind 2013-14 season.
“It’s been hard, especially with everyone expecting things from us because we’re the world champions,” Cappellini said. “We wanted to push through maybe too much. Looking back, I don’t know if maybe we should have taken a little time off and recharged.” AP
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