Jan. 30, 2000 6:11 PM Reuters

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 30 (Reuters) - New ice dance champions were crowned for the first time in eight years at the Canadian figure skating championships on Sunday.

With world bronze ice dance medallists and seven-time national champs Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz out due to her knee injury, last year's fourth-ranked couple Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon claimed top spot on the podium.

"It feels awesome, I'm glowing right now. I feel like I'm on top of the world," Dubreuil said.

Perennial national bronze medallists Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe took silver while Josee Piche and Pascal Denis were third.

Meanwhile, Bourne must decide whether she can mend her knee with therapy before the world championships at the end of March, or if surgery is required.

A medical review of Bourne's knee will be made within a week to determine if Bourne and Kraatz will be awarded one of the two world team berths open to Canada's ice dancers.

Should Bourne fail the review, the couples awarded the gold and silver Sunday will make the trip to Nice, France.

Sunday's announcement of Canada's world championship team contained one surprise.

Elvis Stojko was the only man confirmed on the team with the second spot unexpectedly left open. Either Emanuel Sandhu or Ben Ferreira will earn the second spot based on their performances at Four Continents in Japan next month.

Other world team members include Jennifer Robinson in women's and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier and Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz in pairs.

Also on Sunday, former world champions Kurt Browning and Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Canada's pair skating greats, were inducted into the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

They were joined by Tom Collins, who launched the Tom Collins Tour of Figure Skating Champions 30 years ago and has contibuted over $3 million of the proceeds from his tours to the CFSA Athlete Trust fund.

Browning was a four-time world champion between 1989 and 1993. He made history by landing the first quadruple jump in 1988.

Brasseur, the 1993 world champion and twice Olympic bronze medallist with Eisler, summed up the inductees' feelings.

"It kind of feels like the cherry on the sundae," she said.