体坛英语新闻：U.S. pairs 1-2 after short dance

SOCHI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The duel between defending champions Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir and world No. 1 Meryl Davis/Charlie White continued on Sunday while the sole Chinese pair didn't make it to Monday's free dance after finishing 23rd among 24 pairs.

Dancing to My Fair Lady, Davis and White, last Olympics' silver medalists from the United States who have won every competition they have entered in the last two seasons, set a new season best of short dance on 78.89 points, edging the Canadian arch-rivals Virtue/Moir to the second place after the latters' short dance scored 76.33.

The two North American ice dance couples, who both have been training for many years in Detroit under the tutelage of Russian Marina Zueva and, until 2012, another Russian Igor Shpilband, have dominated the event for the past Olympic cycle, swapping the world titles between them.

"We did what we needed to do tonight. We like our chances," said Moir.

"I don't think we could have done it much better than we did tonight," echoed Virtue.

European silver medalists Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov of Russia took the third position with a 73.04-point short dance ahead of France's Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat on 72.78. Another Russian pair Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev were fifth on 69.97.

Chinese Huang Xintong/Zheng Xun, who announced to retire after the Sochi Winter Games, only managed 48.96 points with their short dance of quickstep, foxtrot and quickstep, finishing in 23rd. The top 20 dancers after short dance, out of 24 pairs of participants, advanced to the free dancing on Monday evening.

Europe has dominated the discipline since it was introduced to the the Winter Olympics in 1976. Russia/Soviet Union have won it seven times, Britain and France have one gold each and Canada won the title at Vancouver 2010.