MOSCOW, November 23 (R-Sport) - Ice dancers Ekaterina Bobrova and Dimitri Soloviev won Russia's second gold medal at their home figure skating Grand Prix on Saturday with a commanding performance.
Bobrova and Soloviev went into Saturday's free dance with a seven-point lead but saw it cut down to five as Canada's second-placed Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje tested their mettle.
The Russians' winning total of 168.32 was five better than they scored on the way to second place in China earlier this month. It brought Bobrova and Soloviev a first win at their home Grand Prix since 2010.
"We're really pleased with how we skated," Bobrova said. "We got a lot of support from the crowd and we were skating with joy. You always want to skate with those emotions, but you have to control then and that's how it turned out."
Weaver said: "It was a personal best skate for us and we're happy that we came back and fought today."
Both the first- and second-placed pairs qualify for next month's Grand Prix Finals in Fukuoka, Japan.
The bronze went to Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, who scored 153.37 to overtake Ekaterina Riazanova and Ilia Tkachenko of Russia for third place.
"I think this is our best competition to date," Bates said. "Our next event is the U.S. championships which will be our most important event and an Olympic qualifier for us, so this is a good momentum-builder."
Earlier in the day, Russia's first gold medal came courtesy of 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia, who won the ladies' event, but Maxim Kovtun could not match that achievement in the men's, crumbling under pressure to hand victory to Japan's Tatsuki Machida.
The German duo of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won pairs gold.
