With 20 seconds to go in Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo's flawless performance, the audience was on its feet cheering the Chinese pair to victory at the world figure skating championships on Wednesday.
When the final notes of 'Violin Fantasy' sounded, the duo embraced at centre ice, confident they had successfully defended their world pairs crown. Four perfect 6.0s -- two for technical merit and two for presentation -- confirmed it.
That scoring anomaly was something the crowd was unaware of, however, since the rankings are revealed only on monitors behind the scenes, a change in procedure related to the new secret judging system.
No one will know the identity of the contradictory judge because of the anonymity rule intended to shield judges from external pressure in assigning their scores.
Third place was awarded to Russians Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, the 2000 world champions, despite three errors in their finale. It was a decision that proved unpopular with the vocal fans.
Totmianina and Marinin led going into the finale but Marinin committed a small mistake on a jump and the pair could not match the sky-high twists and soaring throws of the Chinese.
ANKLE INJURY
Shen showed no hint of the ankle injury she suffered here in practice on Saturday, a problem which threatened to put the couple out of the competition. She had two injections to dull the pain before they skated.
"I had no feeling, so landing (the jumps and throws) depended on my past experience," Shen told reporters.
"We were unsure how the free skate would go because four minutes 30 seconds is very long," Zhao said. "We were very, very nervous, more so than usually."
As Shen nailed trick after trick, Zhao's confidence built.
"I was very excited and it all came out at the end. It was one of our best performances," he said.
Until Wednesday, Totmianina and Marinin had been on a winning streak that earned them the European title and Grand Prix gold over Shen and Zhao.
"In such a big competition, a small mistake costs a lot, but we did what we can," said Marinin, who trains in Chicago.
Asked what he thought of the display of the gold medallists, he said: "Great job".
Shen and Zhao picked up a cheque for $82,500. Silver was worth $49,500, with $33,000 going to the bronze medallists.
China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian jumped all the way from eighth in the opener up to fourth overall while Canada's Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto advanced one rung to fifth.
The championships continue on Thursday with ice dance round two and the men's final. Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko is favoured to reclaim the world crown he first won in 2001.
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