Feb. 11, 2000 5:31 PM Reuters

VIENNA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat capped their steady and inexorable rise up the ice dance rankings by winning the European title on Friday to break a three-year Russian success streak in the championships.

The French couple, she a Russian-born 25-year-old redhead and he aged 28 with flowing blond locks, skated a highly theatrical dance to music from the opera "Carmina Burana" by German composer Carl Orff.

Italians Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio took second place while Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas moved above Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh to take the bronze medals.

Annissina and Peizerat earned two perfect 6.0 scores and seven of 5.9 for artistry from the nine-judge panel for a routine choreographed by Britain's former Olympic champion Christopher Dean.

It was stocked with unusual moves, steps and lifts, including one in the closing seconds where Anissina lifted her partner off the ice.

Runners-up the last two years to different Russian couples, the French duo had five scores of 5.9 and four of 5.8 for technique. It was France's first victory in the event since 1962.

Russians won all four titles at the last three European championships and took the first two to be decided this week in the pairs and men's events. The last non-Russian to win a European title was Viacheslav Zagorodniuk of Ukraine in the men's event in 1996.

There was no Russian couple on the ice dance podium for the first time in 32 years.

As good as it was, Anissina felt their programme could have been better.

"We were tense, we wanted to win so much," Anissina said. "At the end I was happy we hadn't made any mistakes but we can skate the programme better."

"We are perfectionists and we always feel we can skate better. We hope to do so at the world championships in Nice next month before our home fans," Peizerat added.

Anissina was born in Moscow and was world junior champion in partnership with Averbukh in 1990 and 1992.

When that partnership dissolved Anissina wrote to Peizerat, whom she knew from junior events, and suggested a link-up.

"Of course I felt I could win with him, or I would not have written that letter. I looked at a lot of skaters on cassettes and I felt if I could skate with him we could win one day."

She moved to Peizerat's home city of Lyons and they began skating together, reaching their first European championship in 1994 when they were 10th.

Fusar-Poli and Margaglio portrayed two warriors in their programme to music from Riverdance and from the movie "Braveheart" as they advanced two places from fourth last year.

Their medals were the first for Italy in this event.

Drobiazko and Vanagas survived a little stumble in their routine to overhaul the Russians with some unusual moves and lifts.

The women's final on Saturday concludes the competition.

COPYRIGHT © 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.