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PRC duo leads after short program

China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao executed a flawless short program to lead the pairs in the world figure skating championships on Tuesday.

Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy were second after skating early and making a couple of small errors and Russia's Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov were third.

Earlier, in ice dance, France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder led after US favorites Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto suffered a rare fall in the compulsory dance.

Zhang Hao said he was still in pain after minor surgery on his left leg two weeks ago but he didn't show it during an energetic program to Maksim Mrvica's Piano Fantasy that enraptured the near-capacity arena, including Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria. He easily transferred Zhang Dan from one hand to the other on a difficult overhead lift, before lightly setting her down.

The Chinese pair -- fifth at last year's worlds -- had 74.36 points, more than two points ahead of the Germans with 72.00. The Russians had 71.42.

"It was very exciting for us," Zhang Hao said. "This was the best score we had all season."

Savchenko and Szolkowy cut an impressive figure in an infectious, original Bollywood routine and their program was technically more difficult than the leaders'. But after making two small errors while skating first in the field, they knew they left room for the strong Chinese pairs -- including Pang Qing and Tong Jian who were fifth -- to move ahead.

"We could be better. It was nearly perfect," Szolkowy said, expressing disappointment in errors on the triple toe, which his partner stepped out of, and the side-by-spins, which briefly lost their synchronicity.

Delobel and Schoenfelder, the European silver medalists, won the compulsory dance with 40.73 points -- two points ahead of Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and more than five points ahead of fifth-place Belbin and Agosto.

Russia's Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski were third, and Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy fourth.

Belbin and Agosto arrived as title favorites after European and Grand Prix champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin withdrew because of his injury. The Americans had devoted extra time this year to compulsories, considered their weakness, in hope of starting strong at the worlds.

But to the Argentine tango Belbin stumbled and fell while performing a twizzle, a rotating turn on one foot. Falls in compulsories -- where every couple skates the same pattern for two rotations around the rink -- are extremely rare, and the Argentine tango is considered a relatively simple dance.

"It's just a freak accident. It's never happened in practice," Belbin said. "I'm just really bummed out right now because we were really proud of this dance."
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