Second World Championship Gold for Albena and Maxim

Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria won their second consecutive ice dance title at the World Figure Skating Championships on Friday. Denkova and Staviski took the gold with a free dance program to a modern arrangement of Mozart's Requiem with a story theme of "Seven Deadly Sins" dressed in white. At the end, Denkova was balanced on Staviski's knees in a routine full of intricate spins and rotations. The pair, skating together in a competitive event possibly for the last time, had a score of 201.61 points, while Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon finished with 200.46. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States were third with 195.43 points.
A year ago Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski became world champions in Figure Skating Championship held in Calgary, Canada. This is Bulgaria’s first gold medals in figure skating ever. After a brilliant performance of Tomaso Albinoni’s Adagio, they received a total of 199.14 points and 8,000 people saw them ranking first. Denkova and Staviski ranked second at the World Championship in 2004, and third in 2003. At the Olympic games in Turin 2006, Denkova and Staviski were injured by the judges and ranked fifth in the overall. Denkova and Staviski teamed up in 1996, when Albena’s partner Hristo Nikolov retired. Albena Denkova was a gymnast before switching to skating at the age of 8. In 1996 Maxim’s mother Rita started looking for a partner for him. She even made her way to Sofia to meet Albena. Maxim’s mother brought videos of Maxim, and invited Albena to join him training in Moscow. They have been a couple since. Later Staviski received Bulgarian citizenship. Their coaches Linitchuk and Karponossov are the 1980 Olympic Ice Dancing Champions.