Sochi, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) - Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov easily won the short program Tuesday in pairs figure skating at the Sochi Olympics.
The reigning world champions broke their own world record with a score of 84.17 as they try to put their home country back on top at the Olympic.
Russian and Soviet skaters had won the Olympic event 12 times in a row before Russia was shut out of medal competition four years ago in Vancouver.
Volosozhar and Trankov's score was 4.53 points higher than Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, the 2010 bronze medalists.
Russians Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov stood third with a score of 75.21 and China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian were fourth. Pang and Tong won the silver in 2010 behind teammates Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.
Canadian pairs Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford and Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch were fifth and sixth. Americans Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir were ninth.
Canadians Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers and Americans Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay also qualified for Wednesday's free program, after which the medals will be determined.
83.79 first in pairs to help Russia win the new team event for Sochi's first figure skating gold medal.
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