T & D regret their return

Sunday 20 February 1994 00:02 GMT
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JAYNE TORVILL and Christopher Dean said in Lillehammer yesterday that their return to the Olympic fold had been a mistake.

After finishing a demoralising third in the compulsory programme, their worst showing in the first section of an ice dance competition since 1980, the pair who entered the Winter Games in Norway as Britain's main contenders for a gold medal spoke about the intense pressure they now feel under.

'We want to win, of course we do,' Dean said after a practice session yesterday. 'But it has been harder than we thought. We were deflated on Friday because we had skated hard. If we had known before what we know now, we would not have come back, because of the mental stress of everything.

'We are here now. We have made our bed and we are lying on it. But if someone had given us a glass ball and said this is what you have got to go through and deal with, we wouldn't have done it. We are positive about what we can do. But it's not a question of getting to the line faster than someone else. It's about impressing nine judges and sensing what their general mood is.'

They admitted that they had felt resistance to their returning to the sport from the professional ranks after 10 years. 'I don't think it's us,' Torvill said. 'It's just professionals. It's just a feeling . . .' 'Like, you shouldn't be here,' Dean said.

Full story, page 8

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