Davis and White win US ice dance crown

Former world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won their fifth straight US ice dance title with a sparkling performance of their "Notre Dame de Paris" free dance. "It's very special for us. I think in achieving this we've gotten ourselves into some pretty prestigious company so we're pretty pleased," Davis said on Saturday after they became the fifth couple to win five straight national ice dance titles. Davis and White scored 197.44 points after a free dance that earned 118.42. Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who skated an elegant free dance to music from "Doctor Zhivago" were second with a total of 175.91 points and the brother-sister team of Maia and Alex Shibutani were third with 174.21 points. White and Davis said they hope to hone their free dance even more before the world championships in London, Ontario, in March. They'll be trying to regain the world title from Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won last year in Nice. Defending champion Ashley Wagner took a comfortable lead into the ladies' free skate later Saturday after topping the short programme with a score of 67.57 points. Earlier Saturday, Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir survived a flawed free skate to win the pairs title. Their hefty lead after Thursday's short programme carried them through to a victory with a total of 180.61 points. Alexa Scimeca and Christopher Knierim were second on 172.75, and Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay were third on 172.02. From : AFP