Last year's silver medallists Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria were left at the off-medal fifth place in Moscow.

"We know it is difficult to win or to get a medal. We just want to show good dances," said Denkova.

The brilliant performance of the Bulgarians' original dance could not earn them more than the moderate 104.86 points that enlarged the gap from the bronze.

Eventually, French couple Isabelle Delovel and Olivier Schoenfelder skated a fine program to the soundtrack Frida to move up to fourth, pushing Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski into fifth.

Ukrainian husband-and-wife team Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov held on to the third place they had grabbed after Tuesday's compulsory dance earning them 104.47 points. The Ukrainians moved up a spot from their 2004 placing by finishing third and pushing Denkova-Staviski into fifth place with a total of 208.46 points.

World agencies remarked that the Bulgarians were apparently disappointed with the outcome citing Maxim Staviski as saying he could not understand what those marks meant. "Next year the battle will begin anew and I'm sure we will be back fighting," he also said.

Russia's Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov clinched to the gold after consolidating their overall lead with top marks in the original dance. The duo seemed unbeatable in their bid to successfully defend their world title on home ice in Moscow.

The Russian duo skated Friday an inspired free program to the music of Puccini's Tosca bringing a wild cheer from the partisan home crowd at Luzhniki Sports Palace.

The Russian crowd favourites established a crushing lead over second-placed Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto.

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