Nov. 11, 2002
Israelis finish 2nd, 5th in Grand Prix event
By LIONEL GAFFEN

Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky finished in second place in the Bofrost Cup on Ice Grand Prix event in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, over the weekend.

A second Israeli ice dance couple, Natalia Gudina and Alexei Beletsky, skating in their first ever Grand Prix tournament, managed a very respectable fifth place out of the 11 contestants.

Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski of Bulgaria (who were fifth in the World Championships) won the competition after finishing in fourth at Skate Canada last week, while Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse of Germany took third. Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon of Canada, who finished second at Skate Canada, were fourth.

Although Chait/Sakhnovsky, the world's current bronze medal holders, entered this segment as the apparent favorites, the new judging system has already seen a number of upsets take place during the first two Grand Prix series.

What has become clear after these initial events is that most people are dissatisfied with the new system.

Several skaters, including World and Olympic champions Michelle Kwan and Alexei Yagudin, have expressed their displeasure, although most are not speaking out openly, for fear of retribution.

What particularly bothers critics is the lack of accountability. Ten judges are used, but only seven (selected secretly and randomly by the computer) are used to score the event, and so no one knows who is actually responsible for the results.