Cold War erupts on the ice

The longest winning streak in Olympic history was maintained when skating pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the Winter Games gold that has hung round Russian necks for four decades.

But was it a sympathy vote by judges from former Soviet bloc countries, a conspiracy or just wilful refusal to bend to the wishes of 15,600 spectators that denied Canada's world champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier the gold they deserved?

You could find supporters for each theory - and others - after a night when there were as many tears as harsh words. Even TV pundit Scott Hamilton, a former world champion, was blubbing on air.

Not since Kennedy and Khrushchev were squaring up for another variety of Cold War have skaters from any nation but Russia or the Soviet Union won the pairs. But when Pelletier kissed the ice after the emotional final notes of Love Story drifted away and Sale wiped away a happy tear, nobody doubted the streak was over. The crowd stood for a two-minute ovation and chanted 'Six! Six!' to influence the judges to award maximum points for a flawless technical and passionate artistic display.

Suddenly the cheers turned to booing as the judges handed out just four 5.9s for artistry to the Russians' seven, and five of the nine judges voted the Russians winners. One U.S. skating journalist old enough to remember when Russians first won the title in 1964 called it 'a travesty'.

The Canadians' choreographer Lori Nichol said: 'There was not even a question. It wasn't even close. It is a questioning moment in our sport, and it's got to hurt it. That was a gold medal performance. There has got to be a lot going on.' She meant behind the scenes. This is the sport in which six judges were suspended at a world junior championships for inexplicable marking and two from Soviet bloc countries were drummed out because they were communicating with stamps of their feet.