Sochi, Feb 17 (IANS): The duel between defending champions Tessa Virtue-Scott Moir and world No.1 Meryl Davis-Charlie White continued at the Winter Olympics here.

Dancing to My Fair Lady Sunday, last Olympics' silver medallists Davis and White from the US, who have won every competition they have entered in the last two seasons, set a new season best of short dance at 78.89 points, edging Canadian arch-rivals Virtue-Moir to second place after their short dance scored 76.33, reports Xinhua.

The two North American ice dance couples, who both have been training for years in Detroit under the tutelage of Russian Marina Zueva, have dominated the event for the past Olympic cycle, swapping the world titles between them.

European silver medallists Elena Ilinykh-Nikita Katsalapov of Russia took third with a 73.04-point short dance ahead of France's Nathalie Pechalat-Fabian Bourzat on 72.78. Another Russian pair Ekaterina Bobrova-Dmitri Soloviev were fifth on 69.97.

The top 20 dancers after short dance, out of 24 pairs, advanced to the free dancing Monday.

Europe has dominated the discipline since it was introduced in the 1976 Olympics. Russia/Soviet Union have won it seven times, Britain and France have one gold each and Canada won the title at 2010 Vancouver.