MOSCOW, November 9 (R-Sport) - The Russian pair Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov are in the lead at the Cup of Russia in Moscow after the short program Friday.
The European champions entered the tournament as hot favorites and took first place with 74.74 points, their best result of the season.
“We can perform better,” said Trankov.
“This is a dancing program with a very difficult step sequence, and if we skate it clean, we can receive more points. Maximum two more points.”
Second place went to the European championship runners-up Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov, who were far adrift with 66.02 points.
“We were pleased to see our score,” Bazarova said.
“It is our first competition of in the season. So, for the first competition I think we did well. We made some minor mistakes in our performance as well.”
John Coughlin and Caydee Danney of the United States took third place with 59.02 points.
The pairs’ free skate takes place Saturday.
The Cup of Russia is the fourth stage of the 2012-13 Grand Prix calendar.
