The Canadians were robbed

The Canadians were faultless in their display

Former Olympic gold medallist and BBC pundit Jayne Torvill hits out at the judges who got it wrong in the pairs ice skating at the Winter Olympics.

Everyone watching around the world guessed the right winners of the pairs ice skating in Salt Lake City - Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

The Canadian duo were clearly better than their Russian rivals.

It was only five judges that thought otherwise which subsequently led to a disgraceful result.

The Russian pairing of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze missed one of their elements and, technically, they should have been deducted for that.

Sale and Pelletier did not make a single mistake and made far better progress choreographically as well.

They may think they've done the Russians a favour but they have not because this will always hang over their heads

Jayne Torvill on the judges

Four judges were in the Canadians favour but there were five eastern European judges who went for the Russians. It was definitely an eastern European thing.

They may think they've done the Russians a favour but they have not because this will always hang over their heads.

They were the ones that won but not fairly. The response of the audience made that perfectly clear.

The Canadians, on the other hand, are the people's champions.

I have not see such a good pair for a long time. They have all the technical ability required and they have that extra performance quality.

They actually look at each other, which may not seem a lot, but is more than can be said about a lot of other pairs out there now.

Olympic repeat

Hopefully something good may come out of it in that we may not see this happening in the future.

It's not good for the sport especially in one of the few times in the year when it actually gets some real public attention.

In future games the judges ought to be made to at least write one paragraph each on why they have come to their decision so they are accountable in some way.

Otherwise we will have another repeat of this farce.

The Russian pair picked up the gold

The whole event is reminiscent of us at Lillehammer in 1994 when we came third when a lot of people felt we should have won.

I can relate to how the Canadians must be feeling now but it got better.

When we realised how much the media and the public were behind us it was that much easier to bear.

It was nice to hear people saying "you should have won" as we felt we'd skated as well as we could have.

I suppose we, like the Canadians, had to accept the judges' decision and move on, however unfair that might be.

Even if this has been a monumental embarrassment for the sport as a whole.