COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Rena Inoue and John Baldwin are going to the Turin Olympics as gold medallists.
Inoue and Baldwin won the pairs title at Four Continents on Thursday. It wasn't their best performance, but their program was packed with enough difficult elements to win. Inoue and Baldwin finished with 168.89 points, almost 12 points ahead of Japan's Utako Wakamatsu and Jean-Sebastien Fecteau of Thetford Mines, Que.
''We're glad we came here,'' Inoue said. ''We got a lot of stuff out of this competition. We had some improvements in the short program. In the long, definitely the (U.S. championships) was a lot better, but we're just going to work harder when we get home.''
Earlier on Thursday, Tanith Belbin, a native of Kingston, Ont., who is now an American citizen, and Ben Agosto increased their lead in the dance competition despite a rare deduction. Their overall score of 97.51 points was almost 14 points ahead of fellow Americans Morgan Matthews and Maxim Zavozin, a virtual chasm in the standings.
''We'd rather it be here than at the Olympics,'' Belbin said. ''So in that respect, it's good.''
Tessa Virtue of London, Ont., and Scott Moir of Ilderton, Ont., were third with 83.29 points while Chantal Lefebvre and Arseni Markov of La Salle, Que., were fourth with 79.60 points. Mylene Girard and Bradley Yaeger of Montreal were sixth with 72.85 points.
Inoue and Baldwin made history in winning their second national title earlier this month, becoming the first couple in the world to land the throw triple axel, the difficult 3½-revolution jump.
They weren't even close Thursday, as she landed on the edge of her skate and fell flat on her stomach.
''I thought everything was good, but I think I started leaning forward,'' she said. ''Next time, I'll try to think about keeping it back and straight.''
That wasn't the couple's only problem, though. He doubled their side-by-side triple toe loop jumps, and she botched their throw triple loop.
But the difficulty of their other elements topped Wakamatsu and Fecteau, who scored 156.93 points. Elizabeth Putnam of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Sean Wirtz of Marathon, Ont., were third.
Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem, the United States' other Olympic pairs team, finished fourth after botching their third lift. He got her above his head but couldn't hold her, and she swung wildly back to the ice. She landed on her feet, but they still got deductions.