World ice dance champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States narrowly outpointed Canada's Olympic gold medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to win a fifth straight Grand Prix Final title Saturday.
Going out with a hair-thin 0.07-point lead from Friday's short program, Davis and White dazzled with breath-taking moves in the free dance, featuring lifts and steps to the music of "Scheherazade" by N. Rimski-Korsakov.
They collected 113.69 points for the free dance and won the overall title with 191.35 points, 1.35 points better than the Canadians, the 2012 world champions, in a possible preview of the ice dance gold-medal showdown at the Sochi Olympics in February.
Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France finished third overall with 169.11, including 102.48 from the free skate.
"I think we are feeling really positive, kind of gearing up to work as hard as ever for Sochi," Davis said.
"We have been competing against them since before we were teenagers," said the 26-year-old about the Canadian couple. "The continued rivalry between us helped us and we are very fortunate."
